Application of HDM-4 Model in the Structural, Functional, and Economic Variations using Road Maintenance Alternatives: A Case Study at Selected Road Sections in Addis Ababa City

Roadway is one of the most crucial transportation modes to cater to inland movement within a country. The agency mandate is to design, construct, and maintain the road to sustain the traffic up to its design life without further strengthening. However, some factors are affecting the performance of the pavement. Most pavements start to show some traces of deterioration after construction and opening to traffic, but once neglected, the distress portions would be aggravated with corresponding increasing maintenance cost. Thus, the road's maintenance has to be carried out at the place, right schedule, right quality, and at the least cost. Since there are different maintenance alternatives, the best strategy has to be chosen following the road's condition and the severity of the damage. To select the best maintenance alternative, calculations on the pavement layer's property are performed. The Highway Development and Management (HDM-4) tool can do such measures to help decide which option is the best by evaluating the economic and structural conditions. This paper contains two significant areas that are studied. First, it was assessed the procedures followed by the city's road authority to develop the appropriate road maintenance strategies. Questionnaire surveys and interviews are used to collect information from the city's road maintenance departments. Second, the project analysis was performed for structural and economic comparison of different maintenance alternatives using HDM-4. In the analyses, three selected road segments are considered and collected important input data like road condition data, road network data, vehicle fleet data, estimated AADT, and International Roughness Index (IRI). There were five maintenance alternatives have been defined, and proposed maintenance alternatives are compared. The selection is based on the deteriorated pavement, which showed the average roughness for every section of the road network, considering an analysis period of 20 years and cost stream ranking for their Net Present Value and IRR. Results indicated that using a mill and replace, and routine maintenance schedule for the selected road networks is economically viable and structurally significant. Hence, the city's road authority is recommended to apply the different maintenance strategies, providing an economical and better performance for the city's road network.