Pavement Management

A Brief History of Idaho Pavement Management

In 1977, the Idaho Transportation Department began a review of existing pavement management programs with the goal of adopting one to fit Idaho’s needs. The following year, ITD acquired a Pavement Performance Management Information System (PPMIS) and made it operational on ITD’s mainframe computer. From 1978, the ITD steadily improved the PPMIS and modified it to meet specific conditions in Idaho. It was tested and refined by both ITD and consultant contract. By 1986, it was able to perform simplistic economic analysis and optimization.
In 2007, ITD began running our pavement data through the HERS-ST (Highway Economic Requirements System, STate model), at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/hersindex.cfm. This online software from FHWA uses pavement deterioration curves to predict pavement behavior. However, the HERS-ST model results had to be mathematically manipulated by hand in order to meet the conditions of Idaho weather, terrain and other factors, which was a painstaking process.

The new PMS System

In 2009, ITD purchased a pavement management and maintenance management software package. This new software housed a pavement management system (PMS) and a maintenance management system (MMS) to work in tandem as part of the Department’s long-term vision for asset management. This software contains a robust database that houses several kinds of data, such as bridges, maintenance activities, pavement condition, traffic data, skid data, R-values, boring logs and several others.
The Pavement Management System (PMS) has allowed ITD to refine the way we calculate and analyze data, by:

• implementing new pavement performance curves calibrated by ITD engineers
• implementing decision trees that mimic District engineering choices
• creating performance models that accurately track and display pavement projects
• employing an analysis engine that uses integer optimization to maximize benefit

These new abilities will help Idaho become an efficient practitioner of preservation-first pavement management.
With all users of the PMS having instant access to all available data, the system has given the District pavement designers and engineers an extensive toolbox at their disposal. The system suggests pavement project choices based on budget constraints and desired deficiency goals, which the engineers balance against needs and their expert knowledge of the system.

Documents

The Pavement Management section publishes several documents that may be of use to the public. Two of these documents include:

• The Annual Pavement Performance Report (http://itd.idaho.gov/highways/pm/)
• The Pavement Rating Manual (http://itd.idaho.gov/manuals/Manual%20Production/PavementRating/ITD%20Pavement%20Rating%20Manual%202011.pdf)

Dashboard

We are responsible for reporting one of the Department’s most important Dashboard Measures, the Percent of Good/Fair Pavement. That can be viewed here:
http://itd.idaho.gov/Dashboard/

Please send comments, questions and suggestions via e-mail to Karen Strauss, PE
Karen.Strauss@itd.idaho.gov
Or write to
Idaho Transportation Department
Highways: Transportation Systems
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, Idaho 83707-1129