Yukon’s Transportation Division, like other North American transportation agencies, is facing significant challenges due to ageing highway network, increasing traffic loading, higher expectations for levels of service, and mounting construction costs. The Division has developed procedures and software to support pavement management and preservation planning. Under a new initiative to implement state-of-the-art asset management systems and processes, the Division has been working to implement risk-based and optimization methodologies to support the development of long-term pavement preservation plans and to ensure the sustainability, reliability, and efficiency of Yukon’s highway network.

This project involved the use of the IDS Roads Optimizer^® software to generate optimized project lists over a 20-year planning horizon under a wide range of scenarios. The project also involved the development of a new data model to integrate various aspects of highways data including inventory data, GIS data, traffic data, highway structure data, condition data, and work records data. Highways data, which covered the period from 1984 to 2012, was migrated from the Division’s current Microsoft Access database to the Roads Optimizer MSSQL enterprise database. Roads Optimizer was used to develop multi-variate inductive deterioration models for BST and AC pavement sections and to develop a risk-based prioritization scheme based on criteria (e.g., traffic volume, truck traffic). The deterioration models were developed based on historical data and considered a range of variables such as age, traffic volume, truck traffic, etc.

A comprehensive database of treatment methods commonly used in Yukon was created. The treatment methods database included a wide range of technologies including overlay, repair, reconstruction, etc. The database also implemented a set of constraints and formulae for calculating costs and benefits, as well as to determine applicability constraints of each treatment according to Yukon’s policies and work practices.

A number of budget and performance target scenarios were investigated to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of various budget profiles on system-wide condition/risk levels and to evaluate budget requirements for desired condition/risk targets. For each scenario, Roads Optimizer^® generated optimal and feasible project lists that satisfied defined criteria and policy constraints. The impact of each scenario on the network-wide condition and risk measures were also assessed. The software was also used to analyze trade-offs between funding levels and network-level performance and risk levels based on the results obtained from various scenarios.