Abstract:
In present, Thailand Department of Highways (DOH) manages pavement maintenance activities based on the result of TPMS and TPMS Budgeting Modules. TPMS is used to rate pavement performance, which usually depends on surface condition and pavement aging. TPMS Budgeting Module is employed to select the appropriate treatment based on economic analysis. However, TPMS Budgeting Module still has a few limitations. For instance, this module is unable the formula and assumptions according to the current situation, and does not consider budget limitation. Moreover, it can provide only year-by-year plan. This research has created the model for pavement maintenance planning, which can consider pavement performance with economic criteria as well as budgeting to find the optimized plan for pavement maintenance in single or multi-years period. The input data needed for this model is from current database of DOH. Such data is International Roughness Index, road gradient, section length, and average daily traffic by vehicle types. This data is used to calculate agency cost or maintenance cost and road user cost. The optimized maintenance plan is then chosen by comparing cost of each maintenance case. The benefit from road user cost saving and the agency cost from maintenance activity are considered in term of net present value. Linear equation is developed to define the objective and constraint functions that have an objective to find the highest benefit-cost value plan, under the budget constaint. Users can adjust assumptions for some parameters such as a minimum attractive rate of return and traffic growth rate. The result of this model is sub-optimal maintenance plan for the selected road network in term of route section, treatment activity, and timing, which give the highest benefit-cost value plan within the budget limit. This result also helps users to select the suitable solution plan for pavement maintenance both single and multiyear period. In addition, the modifiable assumption of several parameters in this model makes the model more flexible when apply this model for any situation. Furthermore, this research methodology can be used to develop budgeting module for planning the maintenance activity of other infrastructure types