MSU and MDOT Create a New Index to Better Plan Pavement Preventive Maintenance

As every driver knows, when pavement deteriorates, it becomes rougher. What drivers may not realize is that the roughness they feel in the seat of their vehicles not only makes the drive less comfortable, but it also leads to a cycle of increasing deterioration rates with increasing roughness severity. To prevent this cycle of everincreasing roughness and deter iorat ion, engineers try to perform preventive maintenance before the pavement becomes too rough. To help engineers determine when pavement becomes too rough, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Michigan State University (MSU) researchers sought to find a “hot spot” of roughness that marks the threshold where deterioration rates sharply accelerate. Once the roughness threshold is known, engineers can determine when to perform appropriate preventive maintenance to extend pavement life and keep a smoother ride.