A Multi-Criteria Pavement Management System for the Rural Road Network of Bangladesh

Deterioration of rural roads due to the absence of an effective pavement management system has become a growing concern in Bangladesh. Since the allocation of government funds for maintenance operations is very negligible and foreign assistance for this purpose is very limited, unplanned and unsystematic maintenance operations cause serious deterioration of the rural road infrastructure. However, a well-planned maintenance operation must consider not only accumulated traffic loads and environmental exposure, but the social and economic benefits as well. The objective of this paper is to optimize maintenance operations of rural roads based on pavement condition and social benefits for the surrounding zones. A case study of the rural road network of the Gazipur district of Bangladesh is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The pavement performance modeling of the rural road network of the Gazipur district is based on the mechanistic modeling of roughness progression using the International Roughness Index (IRI). Social benefits of each road link were defined as a Rural Priority Indicator (RPI), which was calculated based on the hierarchy and centrality of rural functions and villages. This studyidentifies CAD 3 million as the minimum annual maintenance budget by which the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of the whole road network can be increased to 83%. The maximization of the total network condition and social benefits under this budget was applied to find the optimal strategic results for pavement management. This study provides a guideline for rural road maintenance operations in Bangladesh, which will enable the government to perform the maintenance operations systematically andin a well-planned way within budget constraints.