Use of Pavement Management System Data to Monitor Performance of Pavements Under Warranty (05-1675)**
Linbing Wang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Pavement warranty is an innovative contracting procedure that has been adopted by more and more highway agencies in recent years. Many states view implementing warranties as a method to protect their investment in pavement construction. The major benefit of pavement warranty is the enhanced pavement performance. However, establishing warranty criteria and monitoring the performance of warranted pavement are two technical issues that need to be resolved. This paper presents the discoveries of a research project supported by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to investigate the effectiveness of using the Pavement Management System (PMS) to monitor the performance of pavement under warranty. Based on the history and experience of pavement warranty, warranty specifications, performance indicators, data collection method, and available data in the PMS, five states, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, and Michigan, were selected for this study. It has been discovered that most states establish their warranty specifications based on the performance data from their PMS database using statistical analyses, expert opinions and adaptation of the specifications of other states. They also use the PMS data to monitor the performance of both warranty and non-warranty pavements because the essential data like ride, cracking, rutting etc. are available in the database and convenient for use. This paper also documents the unique features of the warranty specifications including the warranty period, performance indicators, data collection methods, performance thresholds, remedial actions, and how PMS database can be used to track the performance of pavements under warranty in the five selected states. Some comparisons between the performances of the warranted pavements and those of non-warranted pavements of similar conditions are also presented. The survey indicated that an integrated PMS that links the materials and traffic database would offer better efficiency to monitor and analyze the performance of both warranty and non-warranty pavements.