Incorporating flooding impacts in pavement maintenance management of provincial road network

Abstract

Provincial roads play a vital role within a road network by connecting major cities within a province. Many of these roads are prone to flooding, which has become increasingly frequent. Damaged roads may not be received adequate maintenance due to limited budget availability and prioritising roads based on their importance is often neglected, particularly in developing countries. This study introduces a systematic method that aims to integrate disaster resilience into the pavement management system for provincial roads during budget planning, and this is achieved using a single-objective optimisation approach. The road prioritisation process is defined using the Prioritisation Index (PI), which considers factors such as population density, average daily traffic (ADT), and the availability of alternative roads. Optimisation analysis incorporates cost estimation and damage condition-related indices such as the International Roughness Index (IRI) and the Damage Index (DI). The model aims to minimise damage recovery costs within the constraints of the available budget by modifying key parameters, including the reduction factor and percentage values of recovery. The applicability of the developed model has been demonstrated through an illustrative example involving a provincial road network. This methodology presents a streamlined approach to integrating disaster resilience into provincial road pavement management systems (PMS).