Verification of Airport Pavement Serviceability Level Index Components Proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration

Abstract

The Federal Aviation Administration is developing new design procedures for extending airport pavement life beyond 20 years based on the concept of serviceability: the measure of a how well a pavement fulfills user expectations. A key element is a new distress “mega-index” whose elements are intended to represent the independent components of airport pavement serviceability: low foreign object damage potential, low skid potential, and smoothness. This research verifies the assumption that these three components completely describe airport pavement serviceability and proposes an improved probability-based form for the mega-index. The new form has several anticipated advantages including a real-world meaning, the expectation that it can be integrated into a risk management system, and the ability to break down condition into multiple submodels with separate inputs to improve the accuracy of pavement condition predictions.