National Center for Wood Transportation Structures

About the research

Selecting the right treatment for the right pavement at the right time has been a fundamental principle to pavement preservation success. The objective of this project is to develop “Iowa’s Pavement Preservation Guide,” a document tailored to serving the needs of Iowa practitioners who have active pavement preservation programs or plan to implement a pavement preservation program.This proposal outlines a research approach based on national-best practices for pavement preservation program implementation. Many states have developed pavement preservation manuals. The research addresses six areas including: (1) project selection, (2) anticipated benefit/costs of pavement preservation treatments at the network-and project-level, (3) implementing pavement preservation into system-wide strategic planning, (4) preservation treatment considerations, (5) construction/specifications, and (6) materials training. It is important that pavement preservation guidance include project-level and system-level selection strategies project-level decisions have a network-wide impact. Practitioners who use this guidance will be able to communicate pavement preservation benefits at the project-and network-levels, identify candidate roadways for preservation treatments, and utilize the guide to enhance project delivery of pavement preservation treatments.