The Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI) is proud to offer a 54-page report that demonstrates the life-cycle costs of interlocking concrete pavements (ICP) compared to other pavement types. Titled the Methodology Report, it includes pavement performance information from 48 different interlocking concrete pavement sites and notes that the life-cycle of interlocking concrete pavements is 29 years. A case study in the report demonstrates that in both low volume and high volume traffic situations, costs of interlocking concrete pavements and asphalt are within 5 - 10% of each other over the same 40 year lifetime, even though asphalt has lower initial construction cost. This is due to the need for much more maintenance on asphalt pavements. When other environmental benefits are factored in, interlocking concrete pavement is the obvious pavement of choice.
Life-cycle costing is an essential element of infrastructure design. This report combines maintenance and rehabilitation cost with initial construction costs to give an accurate comparison of various pavement options. The Methodology Report also provides examples using the software for comparing the life-cycle costs (LCC) of these various pavements. The report demonstrates that the higher the vehicle loads (axle loads), the lower the life-cycle cost is for interlocking concrete pavements. The Excel-based software is now available and complements the Methodology Report. The program is not only easy-to-use it allows users to enter initial construction costs as well as maintenance costs at intervening years. Users can also input discount rates in order to calculate the present value (total costs in today's dollars) of various pavement systems. When compared to conventional pavement systems the life-cycle cost analysis justifies lower maintenance costs associated with interlocking concrete pavement.
To learn more about this publication and the software visit www.icpi.org.
