A Data Base for the U.S. Forest Service Pavement Management System

This report is the first phase of a proposed three-phase project developing and implementing a database for the Pavement Design Management System (PDMS) which was developed by The University of Texas at Austin in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service. PDMS may be used to design asphalt concrete, surface treatment, and aggregate surfaced pavement structures. Results from the implementation of PDMS in certain Forest Service design offices indicate good performance of PDMS regarding the asphalt concrete and surface treatment pavement designs. However, the implementation results also indicate that the models used in PDMS for the design of aggregate surfaced roads need to be improved. This is not surprising, since these models were not developed with data from Forest Service roads. The characteristics of the Forest Service road system make it truly unique in the world. Because of this, roadway structure design and management methodologies developed by other transportation agencies are not adequate for Forest Service needs. To improve these methodologies in PDMS, performance information on Forest Service roads must be collected and analyzed. Even a small improvement in the management of pavement structures system-wide will result in the saving of millions of dollars annually. Therefore, a data base is a necessary and valuable tool.