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Can you name the second largest asset that property owners care for? If you said “pavement infrastructure,” you are correct. There is currently no data for private sector pavement values; however, recent calculations for our highway system show the total infrastructure asset value is nearly 80 trillion dollars! It is astounding in its sheer size, and even more amazing is what the backbone of our system does for us. Private sector pavement values are estimated to be something near this vast value as well. What would the value to property owners be if we could make this crucial asset last one more day, 1 more year, 5 more years, or 10 more years?  Let’s talk about preservation of this crucial asset by cost-effectively extending the normal life cycle of our good asphalt pavements. There has never been a better time than right now for this philosophy to take root and spread into your pavement preservation program. Our pavements carry our most valuable and precious cargo – such as our families, all trade and commerce, and military and civilian activities. Pavements literally convey everything we do as Americans, every day of our lives to and from every conceivable location. If you consider every asset at its cost and value returned, nothing else comes close.  At first blush this asset seems permanent. It last forever right?  Not so fast, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) research shows that under current practices, pavements average life span between rehabilitation processes is 8.5 years. Additional research from FHWA indicates that for every dollar spent on timely effective pavement preservation, a reduction of future replacement costs up to $10.80 can occur. Current practices unfortunately do not include pavement preservation activities on a consistent widespread basis.  The truth is our pavement infrastructure is aging and deteriorating at faster rate than ever before. Many pressures effect and reduce the life cycle period including physical factors like weather and traffic, loads and even the current “low bid” practice. However another phenomenon has presented challenges that are difficult at best to deal with and are economically driven.  Today, refineries fraction or divide crude oil into many components, one of which is asphalt cement, (the binder that glues aggregates together into airfield pavements and roadways). Many other new petroleum segments are being manufactured from crude, adversely affecting the aging and adhesion qualities of asphalt. This means our pavements are aging faster than they used to, which is not a good thing when you consider we are already behind the eight ball with budgets.   Considering the current national financial situation where budgets are consistently falling short, and our roads fall farther behind each year in the rehabilitation process, now more than ever the pavement preservation discussion rings true. The choices are two-fold: (1) We keep doing what we have been doing getting further behind every day, or (2) We start a pavement preservation strategy that will help us dig ourselves out of this situation. The clear choice is Pavement Preservation. What is pavement preservation? One definition of preservation is to keep alive, intact or free from decay. Oxidation and aging of asphalt pavement begins during the manufacturing process - even before the asphalt is constructed into a road or airport runway. If aging has already begun even before the pavement is built, then what can we do to extend the intervals between rehabilitation and when should we start a preservation process?  Pavement preservation addresses the aging issue by beginning the life cycle extension in the early years immediately following construction. Instead of waiting for damage to occur, and the most desirable, luxurious ride qualities to deteriorate and be lost forever, preservation keeps new pavements alive, intact, and free from decay for many years by starting these activities much sooner than current practices allow for.  The old school way of doing things says to wait several years, allowing aging issues to develop before any action is taken. Such philosophy spends 100% of budget dollars on the worst pavements while allowing the good and best condition pavements to harden and dry out. Next they crack, pothole, alligator, surface ravel, spall, oxidize and eventually turn back to gravel. This cycle repeats, except to say the overall asset quality of our infrastructure deteriorates over time because there is never enough money to catch up.  A tough question is: Why would we wait years allowing this all important asset to age into a condition that is so much harder and more expensive to manage and maintain? Maybe we did not really understand, or believe the data. Logic and field data would suggest borrowing a few dollars from the worst pavement budgets this year (they have been pretty bad for years, what is one more?) and spending it wisely on our best pavements to keep them in their best possible condition longer. This allows good pavements to last longer while we do the work later on bad pavements and gives us the opportunity of catching up in just a few years. If it seems like a good idea, it is! Remember the data: $1.00 for preservation reduces replacement cost by up to $10.80!  One answer to the tough question may be our lack of understanding the basic mechanics of a flexible pavement. For asphalt pavement the most important aspect is its flexibility. Flexibility equals strength. So instead of waiting so long and allowing the most valuable component (pavement flexibility) to escape, and then trying to do the impossible by putting flexibility back after it has escaped, we start a preservation strategy earlier in the life cycle. The default result is pavements that last longer, performing at higher levels of service, providing safer and lower cost to the property owners. Does any of this make sense? It should; the preservation concept is quite simple and results are amazing. Let’s start taking care of our good pavements while they are good and the rest will take care of itself!  Copied with permission by Dan Gee, President of Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Gee Asphalt Systems.