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TR Consulting Services (TRCS) is a full-service pavement engineering consulting firm that performs implementation and updating of Pavement Management Systems in order to provide our clients with accurate and effective Pavement Management Programs.
Our team has expertise in all aspects of developing pavement programs, from establishing new network databases, to conducting pavement condition index (PCI) surveys in accordance with ASTM standards, to generating client-specific maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) strategies.
Ultimately, our Pavement Management Programs assist our clients in identifying the optimal M&R approach that will maximize the life of a pavement network with a limited availability of funds. TRCS clients range from municipal, state, and federal governments to the private sector as well.
Nationwide, billions of dollars have been invested in pavement networks by municipal, state, and federal governments. At an average replacement cost for a typical roadway just over $1.5M per mile, not including the value of the land, a roadway network is a very valuable asset. Many agencies take a reactive approach to pavement maintenance on their local roads. Faced with a tight budget, they wait until a roadway deteriorates to the point it brings complaints from local drivers before they rehabilitate it.
Ironically, their efforts to save money often wind up costing them much more in the long run. Research shows that every $1 invested now in preventative maintenance saves $4 to $10 in rehabilitation/reconstruction costs later.
Pavement Management Systems such as the PAVER software have been proven to provide cost-effective M&R plans by programming specific work types at optimal times throughout a pavement's life. The TRCS team regularly works with the PAVER software, and comparable systems, and possesses an in-depth knowledge of all steps necessary to provide an accurate and effective Pavement Management System.
A pavement's life cycle is the relationship between its condition and age. A newly constructed pavement is considered to be in perfect condition, but as it ages, factors such as use, applied load, and climate will cause its condition value to decrease. The deterioration rate of condition vs. age is rarely linear. A properly designed pavement will typically have a lower deterioration rate through approximately 75% of its life, then at some age and condition value, the pavement's deterioration rate will increase rapidly. This point in a pavement's life is called the critical condition or critical PCI.
Finding a pavement's critical condition and performing M&R before it reaches its critical condition is the key to saving M&R dollars, as the cost to repair pavements increases dramatically beyond this point. The figure below shows a pavement's typical life cycle as related to M&R cost to repair.
Modeling the deterioration of a single pavement's life cycle can be difficult unless there are many condition vs. age data points available. Pavements with similar characteristics such as surface type, use, and functional classification generally follow the same deterioration life cycle pattern. Within the Pavement Management System, these like pavements are grouped into families and then deterioration models are generated for each family using the numerous condition vs. age data points. Our team works closely with each client to create customized deterioration models based on the variance in their network data. These models can identify the critical condition for a specific family of pavements, and the models can be used to predict the condition of a pavement along with its appropriate M&R treatment at any future point in time.
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