Priority, Market-Ready Technologies and Innovations

Construction Analysis for Pavement

Rehabilitation Strategies (CA4PRS)

New

Problem: State transportation agencies

are increasingly shifting their focus from

constructing new highways to rehabilitating

and reconstructing existing facilities

Transportation agencies face many challenges

today, including

- Aging infrastructure.

- Increase in traffic volume with shrinking

construction windows.

-Increase in construction cost.infrastructure.

-Increase in work zone accidents and fatalities.

We need to be able to build highways that are

safer, longer lasting, and faster at a lower cost.

Furthermore, Highway rehabilitation projects

often cause congestion, safety problems, and

road accessibility issues. With this in mind,

agencies face a challenge in finding economical

ways to rehabilitate deteriorating roadways

in metropolitan areas while also keeping

the traveling public as safe as possible and

minimizing disruptions for local communities and

surrounding businesses.

Solution: The CA4PRS software identifies

optimal rehabilitation strategies that

balance the construction schedule with

inconvenience to drivers and transportation

agency costs

Getting in, getting out, and staying out just got

easier. As transportation departments increasingly

turn their focus from new construction to

rehabilitating and reconstructing existing

highways, accelerating construction is key to

reducing problems with congestion, safety, and

user delays, particularly in heavily traveled urban

areas. As part of its overall traffic management

plan, the California Department of Transportation

(Caltrans) is using a new software tool aimed

at reducing highway construction time and the

resulting impact on traffic. CA4PRS is designed

to help planners and engineers select economical

rehabilitation strategies while minimizing

disruption to drivers and the surrounding

community.

CA4PRS was developed under a Federal Highway

Administration (FHWA) pooled-fund study by the

Partnered Pavement Rehabilitation Center at the

Institute of Transportation Studies, University of

California (UC) Berkeley. California, Minnesota,

Texas, and Washington State participated in

the study. CA4PRS was selected by American

Association of State Highway and Transportation

Officials' (AASHTO) Technology Implementation

Group as a 2006 priority technology and the

International Road Federation Global Achievement

Award for Research 2007.

CA4PRS identifies optimal rehabilitation strategies

that balance the construction schedule with

inconvenience to drivers and transportation

agency costs. The program considers the "what

if" scenarios for such variables as rehabilitation

strategy; construction window (i.e., nighttime,

weekend, or continuous closures); number of

lanes to be closed for rehabilitation; material

selection; pavement base type; and contractor

logistics, including access to the site and

production rates. The CA4PRS results can also be

integrated with traffic simulation tools to estimate

road user delay costs arising from construction.

The software aids in establishing schedules,

developing staging construction plans, estimating

cost (A) + schedule (B) contracts, and calculating

incentive and disincentive specifications for

contracts.
CA4PRS software users need specialized training

to use the software effectively. Because the

software package is new, State Transportation

Departments may need to work with their IT

departments to justify its incorporation as

standard software. Users can buy software

licenses from UC Berkeley. Caltrans is working

with FHWA to include the software with the

training package. Buying the software as an

enterprise license for $150,000 will enable States

other than the pooled-fund States to access the

software after training.

Benefits

Demonstrations have shown that CA4PRS

is user-friendly, easy to learn, and valuable

in any project phase. Its greatest value lies

in its capability to provide information to

the planner/designer to optimally balance

pavement design, construction constraints,

traffic operations, and agency budget for

transportation agencies-especially during

the planning and design of rehabilitation

projects. CA4PRS yields additional benefits

when its results are integrated with

various traffic simulation modeling tools in

quantifying the impact of work zone lane

closures to the whole highway network,

including local arterials and neighboring

freeways.

CA4PRS helps agencies, contractors, and

consultants prepare strategies (including the

Plans Specifications, and Estimates (PS&E)

package) for highway projects by

• Estimating working days and CPM

schedules,

• Developing construction staging plans.

• Supplementing traffic management plans.

• Outlining incentives and cost (A) + schedule

(B) contracts.

Application of the CA4PRS model to urban

freeway rehabilitation projects in California,

including the 1-10 Pomona, 1-710 Long Beach,

and 1-15 Devore projects, has demonstrated

its value in saving millions of dollars for both

Caltrans and road users. In 2004, the 1-15

Devore reconstruction project (5.5 km) was

completed within only two 9-day periods

of one-roadbed continuous closures with

around-the-clock construction operation

instead of 10 months of traditional nighttime

closures. The innovative and integrated

approach of "Rapid Rehab with accelerated

construction" on this project saved $6 million

of the agency cost as well as the significant

reduction of overall road user cost by the

schedule compression.

Successful Applications: Confirming the

effectiveness of the CA4PRS software

through rehabilitation and reconstruction

projects

Since 1999, the capabilities of CA4PRS have been

confirmed on several major highway rehabilitation

projects in states including California, Washington,

and Minnesota. The software was validated on

the 2.8-lane-km 1-10 Pomona Project, which used

fast-setting hydraulic cement concrete and was

completed in one 55-hour weekend closure. The

software was also used to develop a construction

staging plan for the 1-71 0 Long Beach Project,

in which 26 lane-km of asphalt concrete were

reconstructed in a series of eight 55-hour weekend

closures-two weekends ahead of schedule.

CA4PRS was used with traffic simulation models

to select the most economical rehabilitation

scenario for the 1-15 Devore Project. The 4.5-km

concrete reconstruction project. which would

have taken 10 months using traditional nighttime

closures, was completed over two 9-day periods

using one-roadbed continuous closures and

around-the-clock construction. Implementing

continuous closures rather than repeated

nighttime closures in this project resulted in

significant savings. Alternative strategies enabled

by use of CA4PRS led to an accelerated project

process dubbed "Rapid Rehab" that was praised

by professionals.

Other sponsoring State Transportation

Departments have also used CA4PRS for analyses

of corridor rehabilitations. The Washington State

DOT used it to analyze reconstruction of Interstate

5 through Seattle, and the Minnesota DOT used it

to analyze the rehabilitation of interstates 394 and

494 in St. Paul.

Additional Resources

To learn more about AASHTO-Technology

Implementation Group's approved technologies,

visit http://tig.transportation.org.

For more information, contact:

James Sorenson

FHWA Office of Asset Management

(202) 366-1333

james.sorenson@fhwa.dot.gov

To request additional copies of this

publication, contact:

Carin Michel

carin.michel@fhwa.dot.gov

(410) 962-2530

TaMara McCrae

tamara.mccrae@fhwa.dot.gov

(202) 493-3382

FHWA-HRT-08-033

HRTM-03/01-08(1 M)E