Evaluation of Treatment Choice, User Cost and Fuel Consumption of Two Roadways in Hamilton County Tennessee using HDM-4

Lack of sufficient funding for infrastructure management is an issue in many State Departments of Transportation in the USA. This leads to deteriorating infrastructure that calls for proper management of resources. Pavement Management System (PMS) has demonstrated to be an essential tool for proper management of infrastructure and proper utilization of available funds. Numerous software have been developed for this purpose. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga conducted a study that utilized HDM-4 software to determine the optimal utilization of available funds for Hamilton County in Tennessee using PMS. The software was used to assess the existing pavement conditions and predict future conditions of one state route and one interstate. Two pavement treatment options were assessed and results indicated that although micro-surfacing seemed to cost less, it does not necessarily improve all the distresses, while an overlay improves the roadway section significantly. In this study, HDM-4 software was used not only to provide the cost-effective maintenance treatment needed for a particular section or funding optimization, but also to estimate fuel consumption for the vehicle fleet, and to calculate the road agency and road user costs. From this study, fuel consumption was found to be higher at peak hours due to reduced traffic speeds. The road user cost was higher on the state route than the interstate due to traffic signals and stop and go motion. The road agency cost for the state route is calculated to be about four times higher than the agency cost for the interstate.