Impact of performance goals on the needs of highway infrastructure maintenance.

750008857PDFTech ReportSWUTC/11/169208-110727Highway operationsHighway designHighway engineeringHighway maintenanceHighway planningInfrastructureCostsTexasSouthwest Region University Transportation Center (U.S.)Jaipuria, SunnyZhang, ZhanminUniversity of Texas at Austin. Center for Transportation ResearchTexas Transportation InstituteNTL-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE-ECONOMICS AND FINANCENTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-DesignNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Construction and MaintenanceNTL-OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLS-CongestionNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-PLANNING AND POLICYUS Transportation CollectionAlthough it is widely accepted that establishing suitable performance goal is critical for systemmaintenance and preservation, a framework that considers the inter-relationship between conflictingobjectives of minimum maintenance and rehabilitation costs, deferred maintenance costs, and vehicleoperating costs to the users does not exist. This report proposes a methodological framework that is aimedat assisting highway agencies with the problem of objectively analyzing policy decisions in terms of theperformance goals for their highway networks that would minimize the total transport costs to the society.In a case study of the proposed framework, the highway network managed by the Texas Department ofTransportation was examined for different performance goals. The results from the case study indicate thatsetting lower performance goals lead to savings in the M&R needs, but at the same time, they alsosignificantly increase the exogenous costs such as deferred maintenance costs and the vehicle operatingcosts