Performance Prediction and Life Cycle Costs at the Ohio Route 50 Test Pavement

ABSTRACT Application of mechanistic-based pavement performance prediction equations and life cycle costing to the Ohio Route 50 joint sealant experiment is presented. As-constructed pavement system characteristics are used as inputs, along with observed distress data for calibration of the predictive models. The relative cost effectiveness of the joint sealants on the project is determined. It is found that predicting the performance of a pavement using observations spanning over a small fraction of its design life and a set of purely empirical/statistical algorithms poses significant engineering interpretation challenges. Nonetheless, the test pavement may be expected to fail in transverse cracking long before it exhibits objectionable extents of spalling, or even before its riding quality deteriorates below a tolerable level. Neither the existence nor the type of sealant treatment used is likely to influence the progression of cracking. These findings are consistent with previous mechanistic analyses, which attributed rapid distress development to excessive slab length, an unexpected flood, and various construction issues.