Development, evaluation and improvement of a long-range pavement rehabilitation program

The major deficiency in the current methodologies of developing, evaluating and improving a long-range rehabilitation program was identified. A new methodology and new concepts to overcome the major deficiency were discussed. Further, a user-friendly, Windows based pavement management system, called Windows ILLINET, was produced in this study based on the new methodology and new concepts.Currently, there are two main methodologies used in this long-range rehabilitation program. One is a manual method, the other is an analytical method. The major deficiency is that the program generated by the manual method is practical, but not cost-effective due to lack of comparing potential cost/benefit tradeoffs among different alternatives, while the program generated by the analytical method is cost-effective, but not practical due to simplifying the real problem into the mathematical model and not allowing human engineers to be involved in the decision-making process. However, a good long-range rehabilitation program should be both cost-effective and practical. This major deficiency has caused difficulties in developing the cost-effective long-range rehabilitation program for more than 20 years.In order to overcome the major deficiency mentioned above, a new methodology was developed to make use of the advantages in both the manual and analytical methods to develop the long-range program. The new concepts used in it are first, graphical data interpretation and, "visual thinking" in which both should be applied. Second, pavement performance evaluation should be comprehensive and quickly accessible. Third, the human knowledge should be involved in the decision making process through a user friendly interface. Fourth, the relationship among the components should be flexible rather than rigid. Then, the process should be repeatable until the satisfied program reached.A graphical/interactive and Windows based pavement management system, called Windows ILLINET was developed based on both the new concepts and methodology. It can be run under Window 3.1+ on an IBM 486 compatible personal computer. This system is welcomed by its end users.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio