APPLICATION OF MAINTAINABILITY AND EXPECTED COST DECISION ANALYSIS TO HIGHWAY DESIGN

There are many trade-offs between construction and maintenance of highways. Conventional engineering economy methods such as the benefit-cost ratio are sometimes used to compare these trade-offs. However, conventional methods often cannot incorporate all the factors that should influence a decision. Two techniques that can extend the capabilities of the conventional engineering economy analysis are maintainability and expected cost decision analysis. These techniques are not new. They have been applied to real problems in the fields of aerospace and business administration for several years. This paper urges that these techniques be used to analyze highway design trade-offs and illustrates their use with the aid of example problems. Maintainability and expected cost decision analysis allow the engineer to use a more systematic approach to certain types of design problems. Application of this approach would lead to better decisions in many situations involving trade-offs between construction and maintenance costs.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/sr/sr148/sr148-001.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/0360859X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Presented at the 6th Summer Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in cooperation with the Washington Department of Highways, August 6-8, 1973, Olympia, Washington.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Alexander, John A
• Publication Date: 1974

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 3-11
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Board Special Report
  • Issue Number: 148
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0360-859X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Analysis; Costs; Decision making; Highway design; Maintainability
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cost analysis
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00080975
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 26 1975 12:00AM