Abstract Manager

Highway concession projects rely on multiple pavement performance measures to define levels of service, manage risk, and enforce compliance throughout long operating periods.  Performance requirements are commonly expressed through a combination of indicators such as the International Roughness Index (IRI), Pavement Condition Index (PCI), rutting, and surface friction.  Together, these measures are intended to protect public safety, ensure an acceptable road user experience, and maintain long-term asset value.

This paper examines the application of these pavement performance measures within highway concession frameworks on Canadian public–private partnership (PPP) projects.  The authors explore the differing roles of network-level indicators, which provide stable and repeatable measures of overall condition, and localized metrics, which are more sensitive to isolated defects.  The paper discusses how the interpretation and interaction of these measures influence maintenance and rehabilitation decision-making, and how conflicts among the established performance criteria can unintentionally prioritize short-term compliance over effective pavement management.

Measures such as long interval IRI and network-level PCI are shown to be strong indicators of overall condition and long-term performance trends, making them well suited to rehabilitation planning.  In contrast, localized exceedances in roughness, rutting, or friction serve an important role in safety screening and in identifying targeted maintenance needs.  However, when these localized metrics are treated as primary compliance triggers, they can conflict with optimal lifecycle strategies.  Over-reliance on short-interval performance measures may lead to inefficient or premature interventions, including excessive spot treatments that increase lifecycle costs and disrupt traffic without improving long-term pavement performance.

Using case studies from various PPP highway projects, the paper illustrates how multiple metrics can be balanced to manage compliance while maintaining sound pavement management practices.  Balanced consideration for safety, serviceability, and asset preservation objectives supports more predictable outcomes at concession handback while minimizing unnecessary interventions and disruption to the travelling public.