About the Center

The Texas Pavement Preservation Center (TPPC), in joint collaboration with the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) of the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) of Texas A&M University, promotes the use of pavement preservation strategies to provide the highest level of service to the traveling public at the lowest cost. Together, we serve a broad range of needs for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), industry, and agencies within the highway community.

Pavement preservation is a maintenance strategy that allows highway agencies to adopt cost-effective and efficient programs to sustain roadways and extend pavement service life. The concept of pavement preservation focuses on dealing proactively with pavements still in good to fair condition rather than reacting to pavements in poor condition.  Historically, federal highway funding focused primarily on new construction and states were held responsible for all subsequent maintenance.  Since 1976, there has been a trend allowing states to use federal funds for highway maintenance that extends pavement life, thus raising the role of this activity in agency operations and subsequently the budget.

If the correct treatment is applied at the right time, then pavement preservation offers a way to lengthen the service life of pavement, ultimately saving money because it delays costly rehabilitation or reconstruction activities.  The many benefits of such a strategy include increased return on investment, extended service life, improved customer satisfaction, expedited treatment turn-around time, increased productivity, and enhanced pavement performance.

With pavement preservation, the service life of a roadway can exceed its initial design life and operate at a high level of user satisfaction.  In fact, there can be up to a 10 to 1 return on money spent on preservation versus rehabilitation or reconstruction programs; or rather, every $1 spent in preservation eliminates or delays spending $10 on rehabilitation or reconstruction later.

Pavement preservation requires a customer-focused program to provide and maintain serviceable roadways, in a cost-effective and timely manner, encompassing preventive and corrective maintenance as well as minor rehabilitation.  One of the challenges of pavement preservation is in determining the right maintenance or construction operations at the right time on appropriate roads. Choosing a road that is in fair condition without structural damage is important, and then choosing the best, most cost-effective technique among the many choices is essential for proper life enhancement.  Consideration should be given to geographic and environmental conditions, existing pavement materials, and local traffic patterns.

The Maintenance and Design Divisions of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) created the first Preventive Maintenance Program.  Preventive maintenance is a tool for pavement preservation.  Non-structural treatments are applied early in the life of a pavement to delay deterioration.  This program mandated the use of $115 million per year for seal coats, thin overlays, crack sealing, micro-surfacing, concrete pavement repairs and bridge preventive maintenance projects. The program has grown to about $325 million per year.  Because of the size of TxDOT’s preventive maintenance program and the historical support for pavement preservation, Texas was a logical choice for the development of the Texas Pavement Preservation Center.