Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/109757
RoadScience Photo courtesy of FP 2 Inc. The Maintenance Section of the law has been expanded to specifically define pavement preservation programs and activities. The final bill explicitly states that preservation activities are eligible for projects under the national highway and surface transportation programs. "The new MAP-21 surface transportation legislation enacted July 6, 2012 contains language both specifically, and more generally, helpful to pavement preservation," says Mike Buckingham, president, FP2 Inc., and director of pavement preservation for Colas. FP2 began as the Foundation for Pavement Rehabilitation and Maintenance Research in 1992, as a nonprofit public charity to pursue and encourage research in The new NCAT Pavement Test Track life cycle pavement preservation performance study also will inpavement maintenance. In 2000 it changed clude data from an instrumented local road near the track, the traffic of which is almost entirely truck traffic to and from a quarry; here in late summer, micro surfacing is placed as part of NCAT study its name to the Foundation for Pavement Preservation, which was dissolved in 2009 As the track began a new three-year cycle of tests, a variety to form FP2 Inc., a nonprofit trade association of preservation techniques were placed on the track and a that conducts political lobbying, among many other duties. nearby local road. This work will provide, for the first time, "Thanks to the strong support of members of the U.S. quantifiable data to better understand how preservation House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, pavetreatments relate to a pavement's life cycle. ment preservation in the final bill was stronger than it was In August, 2012, came the National Pavement Preservain either the House or Senate versions," Buckingham says. tion Conference – held Aug. 27-30 in Nashville – giving even But even as the benefits of having preservation and asset more momentum to the pavement preservation movement. management included in MAP-21 have become manifest, At the confernce attendance exceeded expectations, exsupporters say they have learned working at the federal level hibit space sold out, and a field demonstration of multiple is never as simple as it seems. The preservation community pavement preservation treatments raised awareness of the says it now must make sure the "metrics" by which success potential for expansion of preservation activities in North of pavement preservation will be measured under MAP-21 America and in foreign countries. are applicable to pavement preservation practice. "We know now that an important theme of the new law Preservation in MAP-21 is accountability for work undertaken under the legislaAs a matter of policy, for years the Federal Highway Admin- tion," FP2's Buckingham says. "The operative word here is istration and the American Association of State Highway and 'metrics' or measurement of progress toward established Transportation Officials have supported pavement preservagoals. Our work now is shifting from getting pavement tion as a means of optimizing scarce pavement dollars, but preservation included in federal law, to making sure the now preservation and asset management are underscored in metrics by which progress in preservation will be measured federal legislation. MAP-21 specifically contains language are appropriate for the techniques." that indicates the significance of preservation practice. Right now, the most widely used metric for performance at For example, the term asset management is included the federal level is pavement smoothness as measured by the in the language and is defined to include "a structured International Roughness Index (IRI). While this is approprisequence of maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitaate for new construction or standard overlays – nearly every tion, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a survey shows ride quality is the No. 1 criterion of the public desired state of good repair over the lifecycle of the assets at in judging consumer satisfaction – the preservation commuminimum practicable cost." nity would like an additional metric such as a health index or 24 February 2013 Better Roads