An economic based decision support system for project level pavement type selection

This dissertation describes a project-level pavement type selection procedure developed for use in roadway agencies and details the overall decision framework required for making dependable pavement type selection decisions. The developed pavement type selection procedure will enable TxDOT to meet the FHWA policy guidelines, and will enable TxDOT engineers to make rational decisions that maximize benefits from expenditure of taxpayers' dollars. Salient results from the national and Texas level questionnaire surveys regarding their pavement type selection practices are documented. Three important factors: agency costs, user delay costs, and performance levels associated with candidate strategies are thoroughly evaluated and quantified for economic comparisons. Economic evaluations are primarily based on the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and the cost-effectiveness analysis. It also describes the requirements for and approach to generating candidate pavement strategies. The impact of miscellaneous factors on pavement type selection is also discussed. Some guidelines are suggested for the final strategy selection. A computer program TxPTS is developed to automate the economic evaluation procedures developed in this study. Finally, a few example case studies are conducted to demonstrate the use of the TxPTS computer program and to represent the economic sensitivity of candidate strategies.