Decision Support System to Pave or Not to Pave Using Cluster Analysis and Multicriterion Analysis

For many years now, a lot of research has been carried out to assess the affordability of whether to pave or not to pave a road. Today, the rise in construction and maintenance costs of traditional asphalt pavement systems has persuaded many civil administrations, regional councils and agencies to replace paving with gravel surfaces. Low-volume roads (LVRs), as they are presented in this paper, constitute a significant proportion of the road network in Italy and in many other countries through out the world, making up around 80% of the total road network in Italy. These infrastructures are a vital part of the road network, but at the same time their construction can have a significant adverse impact on the environment, which means that these roads need to be well planned, well designed, well-constructed, and properly maintained to create minimal adverse impact and to be cost effective in the long term with acceptable maintenance and repair costs. Limited resources often exist for LVRs and whether to use paved surfaces or gravel surfaces has become a frequent decision-making problem. In many cases the choice depends only on economic considerations which must also take maintenance costs into account. Using a Cluster and Multi-Criteria Analysis the authors illustrate a complete procedure to decide, on the basis of different geometric, traffic and environmental layouts, whether to pave or not to pave gravel road surfaces.