Integrating risk assessment into pavement management systems

The aim of this work is to provide road agencies with a new strategic approach for integrating risk assessment into pavement management systems (PMS). An application to a small portion of the Italian road network is described, to demonstrate the practicality of the proposed procedure. Innovative concepts of target and actual maintenance levels of service were developed; risk mitigation was studied and optimization techniques were used to define a risk/cost ratio to select the best preservation strategy under different budget scenarios. The work helped managers to determine a proper functional classification of the existing road network, knowledge of the maintenance level on the managed roads, effective communication to road users, and rational use of the available economic resources. The case study indicates that a risk-based management approach is more effective than a performance-based approach. The tool is a valuable contribution to engineers and practitioners, when an actual PMS has not been developed yet. The proposed methodology can also allow researchers to define the relationship between safety and pavement conditions.