Pavement Management System - PMS

A Standard of Good Practice

WAC 136-70 requires Washington State Counties to implement a pavement management system in order to be eligible for the County Arterial Preservation Program (CAPP), assuring that paved county arterial roads data is available to evaluate regionally. 

What is a Pavement Management System?

Pavement Management System (PMS) is a methodology for maintaining road surfaces by systematically analyzing pavement life cycles and pavement ratings to determine timing of a pavement preservation, as well as the most cost-effective pavement rehabilitation type. In addition, a PMS assists in developing pavement rehabilitation budgets that will prevent major road deterioration.

The roadway and pavement information is in the County Road Log and updated annually as part of the Road Log update process. The PMS uses the Road Log information directly; counties using another PMS program have a routine to transfer the current Road Log information to their program.

There are three levels of work on pavements:

• Routine maintenance (pothole repair, patching, crack sealing, etc), done on an as-needed basis.
• Preservation or rehabilitation (installing a new wearing surface, a seal coat or overlay), done on a cyclic basis.
• Reconstruction (remove and replace the pavement and base structure), done when the road has failed or needs widening or realigning.

There are three phases in the life of a pavement:

• When the pavement is in good or better condition and does not need a preservation (PSC above 60).
• When a pavement preservation is cost effective (PSC between 60 and 40).
• When the pavement is in such a poor condition that a pavement preservation is no longer cost effective (PSC less than 40), reconstruction is needed.