Description
One difficult aspect associated with pavement maintenance strategies is the assessment of the proper timing to intervene in a continuously deteriorating pavement and pavement network. This paper addresses the research efforts undertaken to determine the optimal time for maintenance treatment application and provide an assessment of cost
effectiveness of each type of treatment in terms of its own duration and its contribution to pavement life extension. Although there are many studies on structural pavement rehabilitation greater than one inch in thickness, comprehensive research on thin maintenance treatments is more difficult to obtain. In addition, little if any objective maintenance performance data and associated materials properties and aging were very hard to obtain in California. Structural and reflective cracking analyses indicate that the optimum time to apply a treatment is when
the pavement cracking levels are in the range of 1% to 2%. There are significant structural benefits (structural pavement life extension) when a pavement has a waterproofing treatment applied by the time it reaches 4 to 5% cracking. Preventive maintenance treatments, if applied at the correct time, with long lasting 100% waterproofing capabilities, can provide structural life extensions for the underlying pavement of up to almost 3 years.
