Category:413 Surface Treatments and Preventive Maintenance

One of the goals of MoDOT is to "take better care of what we have." Preventive maintenance is the planned strategy of cost-effective treatments to an existing roadway system that preserves the system, retards future deterioration, and maintains or improves the functional condition of the system without substantially increasing structural capacity.

Pavement preventive maintenance is the application of one or more treatments, generally to the surface of a structurally sound roadway. It is performed before the pavement exhibits significant distress and provides for a more uniform performing pavement throughout its design life.

The term "maintenance" can have a different meaning to different people. To some, it is any action intended to keep a facility or its parts functioning as originally designed and constructed. To others it is the act of keeping fixed assets in an acceptable condition, that is, keeping conditions good enough, rather than at initial design levels. Regardless of the definition, maintenance activities are generally categorized as being either "reactive" or "preventive" depending on the intended purpose.

Reactive or corrective maintenance is performed after a deficiency occurs such as a pothole. This is generally little more than a stop-gap approach to keep traffic moving in a safe manner and does not contribute to the long-term performance of the pavement.

Preventive maintenance is performing surface treatments to protect and preserve the condition of the pavement such that it is either brought back to design level condition or near design level condition.