University of California Transportation Center

Different highway agencies use different maintenance strategies. Our research indicates that each agency should compute its own cost estimates of maintenance on the basis of: • the measure of pavement performance that it uses to trigger maintenance (and accordingly, the appropriate value of the axle load power which is not necessarily equal to four), • and the actual maintenance activities and policies that it uses (which are not necessarily thick overlays applied at regular time intervals).

If agencies were to move toward more realistic cost estimates, they would be able to better forecast maintenance costs and plan their maintenance programs accordingly. They also could establish fees that would be more equitable across truck sizes and potentially even raise additional needed dollars.