In recent years pavement management systems have been made available to local governments. One beneficial feature of a pavement management system has been an increased interest in the condition of pavement sections and those factors that affect it. Consequently, factors affecting the condition of flexible pavements owned by local governments are investigated and identified. After a literature review was conducted, several hypotheses were established. Theoretical or functional relationships were formulated, and data files were described. After these files were procured, multivariate analyses were performed on the data and their results were validated. Several factors affecting the condition of pavements owned by local governments were identified. They included old (or previous) pavement condition score, age of pavement structure since last major work, soil classification (or type), classification of roadway drainage (presence or absence of curb and gutter), surface thickness, functional classification, presence or absence of bus service, and individual jurisdiction. Another conclusion was that actual pavement management system data files used for the statistical modelling with only minimal modification may contain limitations for modelling purposes. They include the need for another time domain in the data files so true time-series analyses can be done. Because local governments do not normally conduct traffic classification counts, the data files did not contain truck count data; such an addition would likely increase the accuracy of the models. (A)
Abstract