Pavement management systems (PMS) combine economics and engineering to derive costeffective solutions for road maintenance and reconstruction. Since 1993, the City of Saskatoon (COS) has employed a PMS that focuses on pavement surface deterioration and ride quality to measure the performance of the city’s road network. However, reliably predicting the structural condition of roads based on surface distress information can be very difficult, and structural deterioration is the most operationally intensive and costly road asset failures to rehabilitate. The COS started using heavy weight deflectometer (HWD) measurements to assess the structural condition of the COS road network in 2006. Since it is difficult to distinguish between certain surface distresses from structural distresses, HWD structural information may be beneficial in assessing the condition of the road structure and the corresponding treatment needed. Therefore, using COS network level PMS surface distress data and condition ratings, the effect of using structural data as measured by HWD is examined in this study. Two neighborhoods in Saskatoon were analyzed using typical COS PMS surface distresses and HWD deflection measurements. This study found that structural condition cannot be reliably predicted based on surface condition surveys. Structural condition assessments complement and enhance the findings of surface condition assessments. The risks posed by using surface condition assessments can be mitigated by using structural condition assessments in addition to surface condition assessments. Ultimately, the use of structural asset management will reduce the risk of a significant road failure and subsequent high expenditures to fix such a failure.
