This paper discusses the long-term pavement performance observed on Ontario’s low-volume roads. These low-volume roads, which carry fewer than 1,000 vehicles per day, comprise some 3,715 center-line kilometers in length, about 20 per cent of the total Ontario provincial road network. The long-term monitoring of pavement performance trends on these low-volume roads spans twenty years, and includes performance measures of pavement roughness, distress and overall pavement condition. Most of the observed pavement sections have been rehabilitated or re-constructed several times since 1985. The main objectives of this paper are to: 1) review the pavement rehabilitation and maintenance treatments applied on Ontario provincial highways over the last twenty years, focusing on observed pavement performance records of individual treatments versus age, construction costs and predicted performance curves, 2) analyze pavement life-cycle costs and overall long-term performance of the typical pavement structures used in the past, and 3) compare the pavement performance curves of specific pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) treatments applied to these low-volume roads. The paper starts with an introduction to the pavement rehabilitation and re-construction activities that are commonly used for low-volume roads in Ontario, which are listed in the Ministry’s pavement management system (PMS/2). It then discusses typical pavement M&R treatments, historical performance records and predicted performance trends, addressing the best practices in rehabilitating lowvolume roads in Ontario. Finally, some preliminary findings and conclusions based on the longterm pavement performance observations and economic analyses are presented in the paper.
