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International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 8, Issue 11, November 2017, pp. 1027–1040, Article ID: IJCIET_08_11_101
Available online at http://http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=11
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed
DEVELOPING AN ELECTRONIC DATA BASE
FOR PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Ibrahim Abed Mohammed
Engineering faculty, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
Abbas M. Burhan
College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
Taiseer Mustafa Rawashdeh and Mohammed N. Asaaf
Engineering faculty, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
ABSTRACT
Transportation networks are considered as the main artery of economic growth
for every country, and constitute one class of major civil infrastructure systems that is
a critical backbone of modern society [1]. Pavement maintenance is necessary for
highway infrastructure efficiency and driver safety. However, systematic maintenance
and rehabilitation (M&R) works are extremely costly. Additionally, the funds
allocated for pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) are often given lesser
priority compared to other national development plans; therefore, available funds
must be wisely allocated.
In recent years, the major challenge that have faced most of highways
management agencies in Iraq is how to preserve the roads networks at an acceptable
level of serviceability because of the limitations in the allocated budget for pavement
maintenance works, the external interferences in the process of decision making, and
absence of the effective decision making tools. This research presents developing an
electronic data base (EDB) named RMPI Program (Road Maintenance Priority Index
Program) in order to help the decision makers in making effective decisions for the
selection of roads that should be maintained firstly according to the allocated budget.
If this software is strictly applied, the decision makers will be able to overcome the
challenge of external interferences and to raise the performance level of roads
network by selecting the roads which need maintenance with the highest priority
index.
Key words: Pavement maintenance management, priority index, budget, decision
making, data base.
Cite this Article: Ibrahim Abed Mohammed, Abbas M. Burhan, Taiseer Mustafa
Rawashdeh and Mohammed N. Asaaf. Developing an Electronic Data Base for
Pavement Maintenance Management System. International Journal of Civil
Engineering and Technology, 8(11), 2017, pp. 1027–1040.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=11
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1. INTRODUCTION
Most of Iraq's highways agencies lack the databases about the roads and the details of
maintenance actions implemented. Databases are required to store data in electronic records
that will assist in searching, retrieving, and organizing in countless ways [2]. Having
information about the projects of pavement maintenance works in a database, instead of on
papers or in spreadsheets, not only preserves vital information and saves in time, but also
allows seeing modes in operations that are invisible in other method.
This research presents the details of developed computerized database which will assist
the decision-makers in knowing the necessary information for maintenance works
implemented for each road or section, calculating the index of pavement condition, ranking
roads maintenance projects according to their priority indices, and selecting optimal roads (or
sections) to insert them in the yearly budget plan of pavement maintenance.
2. THE MAIN REASONS FOR DEVELOPING RMPI PROGRAM
There are two reasons for developing RMPI program. The first reason is that the researcher
discovered through the field surveys that most of highways agencies in Iraq lack an effective
database related to the roads. So, the main purpose of this program is storing all information
related to pavement condition of roads in a computerized database which will assist decision-
makers and project managers in reviewing all information needed to implement maintenance
works. The second reason is to insert all projects that needed maintenance works within a list,
and then ranking them according to their priority indices and selecting the roads which have
the highest priority.
3. FACTORS AFFECTING THE DECISION OF PAVEMENT
MAINTENANCE PRIORITY
Many factors that affect the decision of pavement maintenance are assumed in this paper.
These factors may be considered partially or fully by the decision-makers to take the
decisions about which roads must be maintained firstly according to the budget available.
These factors include [3, 4]:
1. Pavement condition factor (PCF).
2. Traffic load factor (TF).
3. Maintenance cost factor (MCF).
4. Road class factor (RCF).
5. Importance to community factor (IF).
6. Security and stability factor (SF).
Iraqi companies suffer from an additional negative factor that significantly influences the
decision of pavement maintenance. This factor is known as "External Interference".
Therefore, Burhan[3]developed a prioritization model (Eq.1) that will take into account the
six factors to assist the decision-makers in overcoming the problem of decisions making
according to bad considerations resulted from the external interferences(1,2). RMPI program
used this developed prioritization model to give each road a priority index and rank all roads
needed maintenance actions according their priority indices.
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4. PROGRAM APPLICATION
Two case studies were selected to apply RMPI program. The first case study is the road
network for Baghdad University campus at Al-Jaderia. The manual method was used by
Sarsam [5] to investigate the pavement condition of road network and hand calculations were
used when calculating PCI (Pavement Condition Index) for each section. These results were
entered by the researcher in RMPI program and the value of PCI was recalculated
automatically in order to show one of the strong points of this program by saving time, giving
accurate results, and storing the data in an electronic database. The second case study is
expressway no.1 in Iraq (about 1084 km length) whose survey results were collected
automatically and the collected data were entered in the program to calculate the priority
index for each section and then the optimal section was selected to insert it within the annual
budget of pavement maintenance. This will assist decision-makers to give appropriate
decision about which road or section must be maintained firstly, and may avoid the pressures
of external interferences.
5. THE OPERATION OF PROGRAM
Road Maintenance Priority Index (RMPI) software was built using two programming
languages (Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and SQL Server). The main reason for using these
two languages is the ease of connectivity between them. Visual Studio.Net is used to build the
platforms of RMPI software, while any information entered by the users will be saved in a
database using SQL Server program. Creating a database for roads requires collecting
information about Iraqi highways network. Theses information includes road name, type of
pavement surface, survey date, sections lengths, distresses available in each section, and the
index used to reflect the condition of pavement surface. The database is developed with three
pavement condition indices. These indices are PCI (Pavement Condition Index), PSI (Present
Serviceability Index), and IRI (International Roughness Index) which are more populated and
used as indicators for pavement condition.
When running RMPI software, the first screen will appear showing the name of program
and containing the button of program began as shown in Figure1. The user can perform two
functions by using RMPI program as shown in Figures 2 and 3.
…
Figure 1 The first screen of RMPI program Figure 2 The start screen of RMPI program
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Figure 3 The Flow Chart of RMPI Software
Pavement condition Priority and decision making
Entering project properties
Pavement condition survey
Survey type:
-manual
-automated
Section
-ID
-length
-width
-area
Station
Lane
and
side
Identifying distresses
Calculating total deducted
value TDV
Calculating PCI value
Evaluating pavement condition
Save
in t
he
dat
abas
e
Entering road name
Assigning factors affecting
decision-making of pavement
maintenance
PCF MCF TF RCF IF SF
Determining value and weight
of each factor
RMPI will be calculating
automatically by pressing RMPI
button
Recurring the
same steps for
other road (or
section)
Ranking roads
Decision-making to select the
road (or section) which has
highest RMPI
Recurring the same
steps for other road
(or section)
Start
End
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The first function is when the user wants to evaluate the condition of pavement surface for
the road (or section) under study. So, pavement condition button must be pressed. Necessary
information must be ready when working on this part of the program. This information
includes project name, road name, construction date, and surface type which will enter in the
screen shown in Figure4. Also, information from field survey for pavement condition are
required which will enter in the screen of pavement condition survey shown in Figure 5. The
survey of pavement condition is done through two ways: manual or automated method. When
manual method is used, the user must divide the road under study into sections, and enter the
data resulted from manual survey into the screen. These data are section ID, section length,
section width, the lane, the side, and the stations. While, if automated method is used in the
field survey, the final results of automated survey represented by the indices of pavement
condition will enter directly in the lower part of this screen which will be activated after
selecting Automated from the field (Type of survey).
Figure 4 The screen of project properties
Figure 5 The screen of pavement condition survey
Pavement distresses [6] of each section must be recorded through the field survey and
these distresses will be entered in the screen of distress identification as shown in Figure 6.
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Figure 6 Distresses identification screen
Twenty-type of distresses were programmed in RMPI software and entered in this screen.
So, the user will assign the distresses that he recorded through the field survey by pressing the
distress type. Next button is used for jumping to the next screen named "Deducted Value" as
shown in Figure.7. This screen is used to identify the area, the severity, and the density of
each distress. The program will apply Eq. (2) when calculating the density value. The values
of deducted value column are entered by the user using deducted value curves which can be
viewed by pressing on DV Graph button as shown in Figure 8. Also, the values of q (no. of
distresses) and TDV (total deducted value) appear automatically. These values will be used
later in determining the value of CDV (corrected deducted value).
Figure 7 Deducted Values Screen
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Figure 8 The Screen of Deducted Value Curves
Pressing PCI Calculation button will lead to jumping to a next screen named "PCI
Calculation" shown in Figure 9. Section id, TDV, and q will appear automatically in this
screen. The user must enter the value of CDV only. Pressing on CDV Graph button will lead
to showing CDV curves as shown in Figure10. The value of CDV can be identified. Finally,
PCI value will be calculated by pressing on PCI button that is available in Figure 9, since the
program will use Eq. (3).
Figure 9 PCI Calculation Screen
Figure 10 Corrected Deducted Value Screen
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The button print in Figure 9 is used to show the final report as shown in Figure 11. This
report contains all information saved in the database that had been prepared when pressing the
button Save in each screen. Also, this report contains a decision that represents an indicator
for pavement condition.
Figure 11 The final report of pavement condition survey
The second part of RMPI software that can be used by the user is to rank projects, roads,
or sections according to a priority index. This priority index is determined by one or set of
factors which affect the decision-making of pavement maintenance. The developed
mathematical model (Eq. (1)) has been programmed in this program to calculate the value of
RMPI. The user must press priority and decision making button that is available in the start
screen (Figure 2)) when he wants to operate on this part of the program. The screen shown in
Figure 12 will appear and the name of project is required to be entered. This screen contains
four buttons. The button Save is used to save the information in a database, while pressing
Traffic count button will lead to move to another screen as shown in Figure13. The average
daily traffic (ADT) for each road (or section) must be entered in this screen. The third button
Maintenance Cost is used to enter the maintenance cost for each section and when pressing on
this button, the screen shown in Figure 14 will appear.
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Figure 12 The screen of entering project name
Figure 13 The Screen of Entering ADT value
Figure 14 The screen of entering maintenance cost value
The fourth button next is used to move to another screen as shown in Figure 15. This
screen is used to assign the factors that affect the decision-making of pavement maintenance.
The user must point the influenced factors and enter their values and weights. The six factors
that mentioned in the previous chapter are programmed in the priority screen. The priority
screen contains the following buttons:
Use Default Weights: This button is used to enter the weights that were calculated previously
from a closed questionnaire process.
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Clear: It is used to reset the screen.
RMPI: When pressing this button, the formula of Eq. (1) will be applied to calculate the
composite priority index (RMPI) for each road (or section).
Save: It is used to save the information of priority screen in the database.
Ranking: This button is used after entering the data of all roads (or sections) under study. It
will lead to moving to another screen called "Decision-Making" as shown in Figure 16.
Decision-Making screen contains all roads or sections with their information that was entered
in the previous screen (Priority screen). The user must select the method of ranking and then
press the button Ranking. Seven ranking methods were programmed in this screen as follows:
Figure 15 The screen of calculating RMPI value
PC: The ranking will be according to the pavement condition of roads (or sections).
MC: The ranking will be according to the maintenance cost.
TL: The ranking will be according to the traffic load represented by ADT.
RC: The ranking will be according to road class.
IF: The ranking will be according to the importance to community.
SF: The ranking will be according to the security and stability factor.
RMPI: The ranking will be according to the composite priority index that is calculated from
priority screen (Figure 15).
Print: This button is used to print the final report of decision-making in a hard copy form.
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Figure 16 The screen of decision-making report
6. THE EVALUATION OF PROGRAM
The evaluation process of RMPI program should take into account operating the software
before any discussion conducted with the specialist persons concerned with the subject of
pavement management. Ten specialists with high experience years were selected to perform
the evaluation process for the program. All of them were from Ministry of Construction and
Housing (MCH) / The State of Commission for Roads and Bridges SCRB as shown in (Table
1). An evaluation form consisting of seven questions is used to collect the opinions of
evaluators about the ability of RMPI program. (Table 2) contains the answers of evaluators
and the evaluation degree for each question.
7. THE EVALUATION RESULTS
According to the answers of evaluators as shown in (Table 2), the following results can be
summarized as follows:
The flexibility of RMPI program is very good which means that most of users can easily run
the program, enter the data, and obtain the required outputs.
The comprehensive of data supplied by the program is very good, and this gives an advantage
for this program to be applicable widely in Iraqi companies. This program supplies electronic
database which may contain huge information about Iraqi roads.
RMPI program has an excellent ability to assist decision-makers, projects managers, planners,
and highways engineers in their work.
Most of evaluators confirmed that this program has an excellent role in developing the
highways maintenance management in Iraqi companies.
The importance and the accuracy of information supplied by the program are very good, since
this program had was built based on the international standards used in pavement maintenance
management.
The assumptions, the regulations, and the information of RMPI program is very good in its
matching with the standards and the reality of pavement maintenance management.
Most evaluators confirmed that such program has an excellent importance for Iraqi companies
if it is seriously applied.
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8. CONCLUSIONS
The main goal of this paper is to develop a computer program named RMPI software that
aims to store all information related to pavement condition of roads in a computerized
database which will assist decision-makers and project managers in reviewing all information
needed to implement maintenance works. Also, this program can insert all projects that need
maintenance works within a list, and then rank them according to their priority indices and
select the roads which have the highest priority. Some conclusions resulted from
accomplishing this paper can be summarized as follows:
There is not any data base for Iraqi roads, and any current data related to the roads and bridges
are documented as hard copies. This makes it to be subject to damage and loss. So, an
electronic database such as RMPI software is required to store data in electronic records that
will assist in searching, retrieving, and organizing in countless ways.
Through conducting personal questionnaire with some of decision makers in Iraqi companies,
it is concluded that there is a weakness in Iraqi organizations in the process of pavement
maintenance decision making and a lack in using modern techniques that contribute in
collecting the data needed to help decision makers to take better decisions. In addition, the
using of mathematical models can assist the decision makers to rank all maintenance projects
according to their priorities and make proper decisions.
There are many factors that may affect the decision making of pavement maintenance. These
factors include pavement condition, security and stability, traffic load, road class, maintenance
cost, and road importance to community. Iraqi companies suffer from an additional bad factor
that significantly influences on the decision of pavement maintenance. This factor is known as
"External Interference". So, the developed prioritization model (RMPI model) and the
developed computer program (RMPI software) will take into account the six factors shown
above to assist the decision-makers in overcoming the problem of decisions making according
to bad considerations resulted from the external interferences.
RMPI program has an excellent ability to assist decision-makers, projects managers, planners,
and highways engineers in their work. Most evaluators confirmed that this program has an
excellent role in developing the highways maintenance management in Iraqi companies.
Table 1 Description for the sample of program evaluation
Company Academic
degree
Experience
years
Position address Current position
SCRB/World Bank loan
projects
B.Sc. Civil 34 Chief senior
Engineer
Head of technical division
SCRB/World Bank loan
projects
B.Sc. Civil 34 Chief senior
Engineer
Head of supplies division
SCRB B.Sc. Surveying 32 Chief senior
Engineer
Head of roads survey and design
division
SCRB B.Sc. Civil 32 Chief senior
Engineer
Head of supervision and monitoring
department
SCRB M.Sc. Civil 31 Engineer expert Head of design and planning
department
SCRB B.Sc. Civil 31 Chief senior
Engineer
Head of roads design division
SCRB B.Sc. Civil 25 Chief Engineer Head of roads maintenance
department
SCRB/World Bank loan
projects
M.Sc. Civil 13 Assistant Chief
Engineer
Director of world bank loan projects
SCRB/World Bank loan
projects
B.Sc. Civil 12 Senior Engineer Supervision and monitoring engineer
SCRB B.Sc. Civil 11 Senior Engineer Head of studies division
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Table 2 The evaluation questions and the answers
The Questions Excellent
100-80
V. Good
80-60
Good
60-40
Middle
40-20
Acceptable
20-0
The degree The evaluation
What is your opinion about
the flexibility of program
for users?
2 6 1 1 0 86 V. Good
What do you think about
the comprehensive of data
supplied by the program?
4 5 1 0 0 76 V. Good
What do you think about
the ability of program in
assisting decision-makers,
projects managers,
planners, and highways
engineers in their work?
7 3 0 0 0 84 Excellent
What do you think about
the role of program in
developing the road
maintenance management
in Iraq?
8 2 0 0 0 86 Excellent
What do you think about
the importance and the
accuracy of information
supplied by the program?
5 3 2 0 0 76 V. Good
What is the degree of
matching the assumptions,
the regulations, and the
information of RMPI
program with the standards
and the reality of pavement
maintenance?
6 2 2 0 0 78 V. Good
What is the importance of
program for your company?
8 1 1 0 0 84 Excellent
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