Long life pavements and other road infrastructure, by definition, must provide a high level of service over a number of decades. During that time, there will be changes in three critical elements: people, technology and information. In other words, there will be an unavoidable succession, planned or unplanned, of these critical elements. The challenge is to ensure that the road infrastructure, from its inception, achieves its intended function and service over a long span of time through proper succession planning. This paper builds on an earlier presentation to the Spring, 2002 TAC Workshop on Education and Training by first presenting the management context for succession planning and then illustrating that it involves not only people and technology but also information or data. In summary, this paper has as its basic premise that good design, construction and maintenance of long life pavements can be most effectively realized through proper succession planning for the variation of people, technology and information occurring over the time span involved.
Abstract