Development of Pavement Management
System for Municipality Roads,Saudi Arabia
Hamad I. Al-Abdul Wahhab
E-mail: hawahab@kfupm.edu.sa
Rezqallah H. Ramadhan
E-mail: ramadhan@kfupm.edu.sa
Ibrahim M. Asi
E-mail: asi@hu.edu.jo
Jaweed Yazdani
E-mail: jaweed@kfupm.edu.sa
Abstract:
Simple engineering judgment was the only
procedure followed by Dammam Municipality
engineers for pavement evaluation and maintenance prioritization. By the end of
1997, the General Directorate for Operation and Maintenance decided to adapt an
objective, systematic, and scientific evaluation procedure of their pavement
network and to efficiently allocate the present limited funds to maximize their
benefits. Therefore, they decided to develop a pavement management system
(PMS). A methodology was developed to integrate different subsystems into a
rational systematic pavement management system for Dammam Municipality
road network, Saudi Arabia.
These subsystems are (i) pavement features coding,
(ii) visual pavement evaluation, (iii) equipment-based pavement evaluation, (iv) maintenance and repair strategy selection, (v)
maintenance priority ranking, (vi) pavement condition prediction, and (vii)
reporting. These subsystems were all integrated to form the Dammam Municipality Pavement Management System
(DMPMS). The system is a customized computer software
that is a knowledge-based Visual Basic Windows application. It has been
designed to provide an easy-to-use PC product. It is a completely interactive menu-driven
error-checking application, which is supplemented by a full active self
explanatory help facility. The DMPMS was tested and implemented for Dammam road network. The implementation activities included
a review and evaluation of data collection procedures and a development of
distress manifestation manual, preparation of the software documentation, and Dammam
Municipality personnel
hands-on training. It is hoped that the developed system will improve pavement
performance and yield significant savings in pavement maintenance in the long
term.