The intention of the study is to demonstrate the potential economic effects of delayed road maintenance and management, leading to deteriorated riding quality and subsequent increased vehicle operating costs, vehicle damage, and freight damage.

The overall objectives of this project are to enable Caltrans to better manage the risks of decisions regarding freight and the management and preservation of the pavement network, as the potential effects of such decisions (i.e., to resurface and improve riding quality earlier or delay such a decision for a specific pavement) will be quantifiable in economic terms. This objective will be reached through applying the principles of vehicle-pavement interaction (V-PI) and state-of-the-practice tools to simulate and measure peak loads and vertical acceleration of trucks and their freight on a selected range of typical pavement surface profiles on the State Highway System (SHS) for a specific region or Caltrans district.