This paper explores the implications of flexible pavement deterioration models that allow the separation of highway pavement life-cycle costs into joint and common costs and the allocation of the joint costs to various vehicle classes on the basis of their pavement damage characteristics. The ontario flexible pavement deterioration model is used to calculate the joint and common cost portions of pavement costs for a range of traffic loadings and pavement strategies. These calculations show that the portion of pavement costs attributedto traffic varied from one-quarter to one-third, with the remainderbeing attributed to environmental degradation. The analyses show that there are substantial economies of scale with respect to traffic loadings and that joint costs per esal-kilometer decreased significantly with increased traffic loadings. Large differences in the jointcosts per vehicle-kilometer occur between the different truck types, while the joint costs per tonne-kilometer are more uniform. The main weakness of the ontario model seems to be in the prediction of the performance of overlaid pavements. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1215, Pavement management and rehabilitation.
Abstract