Estimating cost per lane mile for routine highway operations and maintenance

709593111Final Report; 12/14/06-3/31/2010PDFTech ReportMRUTC 07-120092-06-12Cost estimatingHighway operationsHighway maintenanceBudgetingRoadside floraDrainageRoad markingsMichiganOhioWisconsinMidwest Regional University Transportation CenterAdams, Teresa M.Midwest Regional University Transportation CenterWisconsin. Dept. of TransportationNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATIONNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Construction and MaintenanceNTL-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE-ECONOMICS AND FINANCEUS Transportation CollectionThe disparity between maintenance budgets and maintenance requirements causes agencies to make difficult choicesabout maintenance priorities. There is a growing need to effectively link maintenance costs and condition to provide clearevidence of impacts due to budget tradeoffs decisions. The focus of this research was to develop mathematical relationshipsbetween expenditures for highway maintenance and the resulting maintenance condition by analyzing historic cost andcondition data. The research involved analyzing maintenance condition and cost data over three years, 2004, 2005, and 2006from the state transportation agencies in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin for highway components including pavement,shoulders, roadside vegetation, drainage, signs, and pavement markings. The maintenance management systems at the statesuse different categorization schemes for their maintenance activity costs and different rating systems for maintenancecondition, thus direct comparison between states was not possible.The primary result of this research is a set of probabilistic distribution functions for annual maintenance costs for awide range of maintenance activities. Confidence intervals can be constructed around the average using the chosen level ofconfidence (i.e., 95%). The functions are useful for sensitivity and simulation analyses.The researchers hypothesized that data would reveal relationships between cost and condition. A regression treeanalysis approached was used to search for relevant model equations. However, the statistical analysis of the data revealedweak evidence of these relationships. This finding is common for all three of the states that were investigated. There are atleast two clear limitations of the data. First, to see trends overtime, three years of data may not be enough. Furthermore,even with budget cuts, noticeable deterioration in condition, deficiencies, or maintenance backlog may take longer than threeyears. Second, the available cost and condition data are aggregated over many highway miles. Maintenance management andcost records generally do not include precise highway locations where maintenance was performance, the specific activitiesthat were performed, nor the precise cost and timing of those activities. Consequently the trends and relationships betweencost and condition are \ue2\u20ac\u153washed out\ue2\u20ac? by the lack of precision