Technical and economic sustainability of concrete pavements

Abstract

Economic evaluation of road pavements is as important as their technical and structural design: often only initial construction costs are calculated to assess economic project sustainability. Instead, forgetting maintenance costs exposes society to unacceptable risks of expensive and incorrect decisions. Road pavements design and construction solutions affect maintenance works during service life, which not only entail economical and financial expenditures, but also damage service regularity for users and affect environmental impact. The analysis of pavement distress and the study of its evolution during service life can contribute to find the financially most advantageous solution. This paper shows a software program developed to analyze structural, functional and financial performances of road concrete pavements both doweled slabs and continuously reinforced. © this article is retained by the author(s).