Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is an important tool to evaluate the overall long-term economic efficiency between competing alternative investment options. The LCCA can assist transportation agencies and officials in their decision-making process to select a pavement type fora certain location. In a literature review only, a few studies were found to incorporate a systematic economic comparison between Segmental Pavements, also known as Interlocking Concrete Pavements (ICP), conventional Asphalt Concrete (AC) and Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach for comparing ICP with conventional pavements, demonstrated through a case study of an in-service ICP.
It is generally understood that the initial construction costs of ICP are higher than traditional AC and PCC pavements. However, the maintenance costs of ICP are lower than AC and PCC. To evaluate the three pavement types a 50-year LCCA was completed for comparable ICP, AC and PCC pavements. The evaluation included an analysis of pavement life-cycle strategies, including construction and future maintenance costs.
Comparable designs for ICP, AC, and PCC pavements were developed for a sample project for a neighborhood connector road in an Ontario municipality. LCC analyses were created for those design scenarios. Unit costs were obtained through a variety of sources, including an ICP survey conducted in 2021/2022, contractors/suppliers, and input from a municipality with a recent ICP project. A sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the effects of different discount rates and installation costs in the LCCA.
The results confirmed that the maintenance costs of ICP are lower than the maintenance costs of AC and PCC in all cases. The Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of ICP is higher due to the higher ICP construction costs. The sensitivity analysis on discount rates showed that lower discount rates tend to benefit ICP LCC in comparison to PCC, while higher discount rates tend to benefit AC and PCC LCC.
The ICP installation costs varied from $110 to $325 per square metre (sq. m.) based on the Ontario survey data. When the ICP installation cost is $110 per sq. m., ICP LCC is similar to AC. In the $153 to
$325 price range, ICP LCC is higher than AC. Comparing the ICP and PCC Pavements, when the paver installation cost was set between $110 and $153 per sq. m., the ICP LCC was lower than PCC. At $196, ICP and PCC LCCs are the same. As the paver installation cost increases from $216 to $325 per sq. m., the ICP LCC becomes higher than PCC.
LCCA is one tool to help jurisdictions decide on a project design, however, there are other factors to consider in the decision-making process, such as, traffic, soils, material availability, construction, maintenance, aesthetics, and environment.