Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Mississippi's Pavement Warranty Program

Abstract

More and more state highway agencies have adopted pavement warranty programs in their project contracting to foster contractor innovation, enhance pavement performance, reduce agency costs, and preserve the investment in pavement construction. The Mississippi Department of Transportation (DOT) initiated its pavement warranty program in 2000. This study evaluated the effectiveness of that program on the basis of the international roughness index and data on rutting, cracking, and other typical surface distresses collected and stored in the database of the agency's pavement management system. The distribution of this pavement performance data at different lengths of service was developed for both warranted and nonwarranted projects to reveal the pavement performance characteristics under the two contracting methods. Pair-wise comparison of the distribution of the pavement performance data at different lengths of service was conducted to investigate pavement deterioration patterns over time for both warranted and nonwarranted pavements. Finally, two-sample t-tests were performed to compare the performance of warranted and nonwarranted pavements at the same length of service. The results of the study showed that the deterioration rate of the warranted pavements was slower than that of the nonwarranted pavements and that the performance of the warranted pavements was superior to that of the nonwarranted pavements at the same length of service. On the basis of the statistical analyses, it could be concluded that the pavement warranty program in Mississippi can effectively improve the pavement performance for the state.