Book Description

Abstract: Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is performed by transportation agencies in the design phase of transportation projects in order to be able to implement more economical strategies, to support decision processes in pavement type selection (flexible or rigid) and also to assess the relative costs of different rehabilitation options within each type of pavement. However, most of the input parameters are inherently uncertain. In order to implement the LCCA process in a reliable and trustworthy manner, this uncertainty must be addressed. This thesis summarizes a through research that aims at improving the existing LCCA approach for South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) by developing a better understanding of the parameters used in the analysis. In order to achieve this, a comprehensive literature review was first conducted to collect information from various academic and industrial sources. After that, two surveys were conducted to survey the state-of-the-practice of LCCA across the 50 U.S. Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Canada. The questionnaires were designed to gauge the level of LCCA activity in different states as well as to solicit information on specific approaches that each state is taking for pavement type selection. The responses obtained from the web surveys were analyzed to observe the trends regarding the various input parameters that feed into the LCCA process. The results were combined with the additional resources in order to analyze the challenges to implementing the LCCA approach. The survey results showed LCCA is used widely among transportation agencies. However, the extent of the analysis varies widely and is presented here.