Accounting for Traffic Dynamics in Pavement Maintenance Scheduling

Effective maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction (MR&R) of road pavements is crucial for ensuring a safe and efficient transportation network. Existing research has proposed various models to aid decision-making in MR&R planning. However, these models often overlook the impact of traffic dynamics, such as shockwaves and queue spillovers caused by reduced capacity during maintenance activities. To bridge this gap, we present a novel methodology that incorporates traffic dynamics into the selection and sequencing of MR&R activities over a planning horizon. Our approach combines numerical evaluation of traffic flow theory using the link transmission model (LTM) with a deterioration model, considering travel time cost, fuel cost, and agency cost, to assess the optimal sequence of MR&R activities. To solve this multi-objective problem, we employ a genetic algorithm (GA) to minimize the objective function. Through a numerical example, we demonstrate the methodology’s effectiveness and sensitivity to pavement deterioration. The results clearly indicate the effectiveness of using the proposed methodology over the widely used Bureau of Public Roads (BPR)-function-based methods for pavement maintenance scheduling problems.