Impact of Climate Change on Road Maintenance Budgets and Practices

Recent studies showed an increasing pattern in the frequency and intensity of flooding events throughout the United States because of climate change. The pavement network can experience considerable damage during flood and post-flood recovery periods. This project aims to develop an analysis framework and toolkit for quantifying the effects of flooding on the US flexible pavement network through mechanistic-empirical (ME) pavement analysis procedure, assess its resiliency, and evaluate potential corrective actions. The core engine of this tool will be the Unified Pavement Distress Analysis and Prediction System (UPDAPS) developed by FHWA and recently upgraded to implement the most recent ME models, coupled with the national level database of the pavement sections, namely Highway Pavement Management System (HPMS). Materials’ inputs are key to ME analysis. For this reason, a laboratory investigation will be performed to evaluate the behavior of materials that typically compose a flexible pavement structure. Laboratory data will be used to revise the current ME distress models. Furthermore, historical flooding data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and forecasted flooding events will be simulated in the tool to evaluate the resiliency of the US pavement network to this climatic stress and investigate the effectiveness of selected corrective actions (e.g., increase pavement thicknesses, stabilization of unbound layers, subsurface drainage systems). The outcome of this project is expected to provide fundamental insights on the flooding effects on flexible pavement performances and support road agencies correctly allocating their financial resources.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $595440
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552344813

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Prairie View A&M University

  Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
  P.O. Box 519
  Prairie View, TX  United States  77446
• Performing Organizations:

  Michigan State University, East Lansing

  Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
  Institute for Community Development
  East Lansing, MI  United States  48824-1226
• Principal Investigators:

  Kutay, Muhammed

• Start Date: 20230901
• Expected Completion Date: 20250831
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
• Source Data: 01-21-MSU

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Budgeting; Climate change; Flexible pavements; Floods; Highway departments; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design
• Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Finance; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01895255
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Infrastructure Transformation
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552344813
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 4 2023 1:02PM