Optimal policies for greenhouse gas emission minimization under multiple agency budget constraints in pavement management

- A decision support tool in Pavement Management Systems is presented.
- System-level Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are minimized.
- Multiple budget constraints are considered.
- We determine joint management strategies for a range of heterogeneous interventions.
- Our findings are applied to a real world highway network in California.

Greenhouse gas emissions reduction has garnered special importance in recent times in the transportation sector, including pavement design and management. In this study, we incorporate this environmental objective in pavement management. We present an optimization problem to minimize GHG emissions under multiple budget constraints by determining joint management strategies for a range of heterogeneous interventions, including maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction. We propose a computationally efficient bottom-up solution algorithm, which is built on Lagrangian Relaxation and Dynamic Programming. Finally, we apply our findings to a real-world highway network in California, where the results show a potential GHG emissions reduction of 20% through an increased combined budget of 35% on the Pareto frontier.