Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Ermittlung der Lebenszykluskosten von Straßen in Asphaltbauweise

To assess the overall costs of pavements is a major concern of road administrations and a necessity to establish new types of contracts like Puplic Private Partnerships (PPP), for example. The estimation of life-cycle costs based on specific material parameters like the stiffness or fatigue-resistance became possible by implementing the RDO Asphalt into the existing standards and regulations. Furthermore, the RSO Asphalt provide a procedure to assess the profitability of asphalt pavements in accordance to the given material parameters.
The aim of this thesis is to calculate and assess the financial requirements for the maintenance of different road categories during the whole life-cycle of an asphaltic road. Therefore, important factors and parameters were added to existing procedures based on the structural substance of roads.
In a literature research the national and international state of the art concerning the topic of life-cycle-cost analysis and the behavior of asphalt roads under traffic were shown and analyzed. So it was possible to determine existing essentials for further calculations. Subsequently representative road sections for the German Autobahnen, Bundesstraßen and Landesstraßen were worked out. They define the cross sections, the thickness and number of layers as well as further components like guardrails or road signs for each road category.
On the basis of these representative road sections and individual maintenance strategies, the life-cycle costs were calculated based on estimated costs for the construction of the road and for maintenance activities. The life-cycle costs are defined as the sum of the costs for the construction and the maintenance of the road minus the salvage value at the end of the life-cycle.
The calculated life-cycle costs have been analyzed and functionally emulated. With these regression functions it is possible to estimate the life-cycle costs for asphalt pavements as a percentage development or as real costs.