Pavement Preservation Journal, Winter 2012, Volume 5, Number 6
The new Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) surface transportation legislation enacted July 6, 2012 contains language both specifically, and more generally, helpful to pavement preservation.
Thanks to the strong support of members of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, pavement preservation in the final bill was stronger than it was in either the House or Senate versions. The concepts of asset management and preservation are widely used in MAP-21, which will bring great benefits to state and local government agencies, the preservation industry, and road users.
The term asset management is included in the language and is defined to include “a structured sequence of maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the life cycle of the assets at minimum practicable cost.”
The Maintenance Section of the law has been expanded to specifically define pavement preservation programs and activities. The final bill explicitly states that preservation activities are eligible for projects under the national highway and surface transportation programs. We’ll explore this new legislation in our next issue.