Comprehensive Life Cycle Cost Analysis for the Selection of Stabilization Alternatives for Better Performance of Low Volume Roads, Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Low volume roads (LVRs) such as rural roads, farm-to-market (FM) roads, and local/city roads are an important part of the worlds’ transportation infrastructure. LVRs are direct cause of the socio-economic development of rural communities. It was estimated that 60% of the road network in United States is comprised of low volume roads. The construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of these roads are the major tasks which result in about 54% of the total annual expenditure of transportation agencies in the USA. Better design and construction methods will lead to lower maintenance and rehabilitation costs of the LVRs. Stabilization of weak subgrade soils to support low volume roads is a widely accepted method of improving the performance of LVRs. However, the selection of stabilization alternative based on cost-benefit point of view is a crucial task for a transportation agency which has not been addressed in a synergistic manner. In this paper, a new conceptual engineering-economic tool based life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is developed to optimize and to select a best stabilizer and the stabilization technique for a given subgrade soil and traffic conditions. In this analysis, agency, user and externality costs are addressed. Two case studies are analyzed for Europe and U.S. road conditions to validate the LCCA model. Results demonstrate that, under specific boundary conditions, soil stabilization can play an important role, merging environmental and mechanical effectiveness of low volume roads.