Assessment of the Comprehensive Benefit of Pavement Maintenance Measures Considering Resource Scarcity Based on Life-cycle Cost

To improve the rational use of non-renewable resources in road engineering, establish a life-cycle cost assessment method for the comprehensive benefits of maintenance measures, and promote the sustainable development of transportation engineering infrastructure, based on the theory of life-cycle cost assessment (LCCA), an evaluation indicator of resource scarcity was introduced and a project-level resource scarcity evaluation system for road materials was established from three dimensions: stock scarcity, import scarcity, and technology scarcity. The indicator was quantified as a monetary equivalent and included in the life-cycle cost list. Subsequently, relying on the data from the pavement maintenance management system in Jiangsu province, the comprehensive benefits of three categories of maintenance measures, including recycling, milling and repaving, and overlaying, were quantitatively analyzed in terms of resource scarcity, economic benefits, and performance development. Results show that considering resource scarcity, recycling measures have a high utilization rate of old materials and excellent resource rationality. ECA-10 thin overlaying measures have thin treatment thickness and low consumption of materials, which can save about 50% of resources compared to ordinary overlaying measures. Direct disposal of milling waste and improper selection of stone sources will result in additional equivalent costs of 10% -20%. Considering comprehensive benefits, the cost of each maintenance scheme related to construction characteristics (such as construction period, construction level, process advancement, etc.) is close to 60%, with indirect economic losses between users accounting for over 30%, which is directly determined by the construction period. Finally, this study suggests selecting material sources and destinations carefully to reduce the waste of non-renewable resources, optimizing maintenance construction process to reduce indirect economic losses to users, improving construction level to decline direct fuel consumption of users, and making scientific maintenance decisions to decrease government costs.