Whole Life Costing of Road Pavements The Way Ahead

This paper considers the role of whole life costing in the management process for the road network and explores the background to current interest in England. It describes the development of the computer model, COMPARE, for assessing the whole life costs of bituminous and concrete pavement options. The key components of the model associated with input requirements, pavement deterioration, calculation of costs of maintenance works, costs to the road user and the Net Present Cost are described. Future practical applications of the model are discussed. Trials of COMPARE for the evaluation of tenders for construction of new road schemes have commenced and preliminary conclusions from the trials are presented.