Prediction of the effectiveness of pavement preventive maintenance in Egypt

Maintenance is one phase of pavement management system. It plays an essentialand integral part in the life of a pavement. As vehicle miles traveled and traveling speeds have increased that role has only become more important. Maintenance involves repairing localized problem areas such as potholes or badly cracked pavementsections and sealing cracks. This type of maintenance is needed to prolong thepavement life and to prevent rapid damage to the pavement due to water penetration and other causes. Most agencies now recognize that pavement maintenance can significantly influence pavement performance. Lack of or poor and inconsistent . maintenance may result in accelerated deterioration while good maintenance at theright time in the right places can slow down deterioration and consequently delay the time until rehabilitation is required.An evaluation of the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of pavement preventive maintenance and an evaluation of using different asphalt materials in pavement maintenance in Egypt are the two main objectives of this study. Preventive maintenance, in this study, means the maintenance which prevent further deteriorationof pavement condition. To achieve study objectives, two highways were selected.These highways are kafr Sakr - Abu Kbir and Faqos - El hosnia. A pavementcondition survey for the selected highways were provided. Some distresses were considered in this study. These distresses are alligator, block, edge, and longitudinal and transverse cracking. Some pavement sections, on the selected highways, were identified. Three maintenance techniques were carried out on the selected pavementsections. These techniques are no maintenance, technique ( A ), and technique ( B ) . These techniques were performed by using asphalt cement (AC 60 /70) on the selectedpavement sections. An additional asphalt materials were used on Kafr Sakr -Abu Kbirhighway. These asphalt materials are cutback asphalt ( RC - 3000 ) and cationic slowsetting emulsion asphalt ( CSS - 1 h ). The total number of studied test sections are( 448 ) test sections. A monthly periodic evaluation by pavement condition indexmethod ( PCI ), on the studied pavement sections were provided for a period of 16months. An evaluation of the maintenance techniques through the progress of distresses quantity, with different levels of severity ( low, medium, and high ), and