6.6.3.1 Life Cycle Planning

Life Cycle Planning

One benefit of categorizing maintenance activities by their impact on the asset life cycle is that it facilitates incorporation of costs from those activities into Life Cycle Planning (LCP) analysis.

• Preventive Maintenance, Repair, and Unit Replacement costs are all critical inputs to LCP analysis. These costs are sometimes considered under the Preservation work type by State DOTs. Assets are typically eligible for each type of maintenance activity at a specific point in their lifecycles. Once a certain level of deterioration has been reached, a given type of activity ceases to be a cost-effective treatment. To incorporate these maintenance activities into LCP for a given asset class, agencies should consider the following:
• 1. The size of the asset inventory.
  2. The number (or percentage) of assets eligible for the activity type.
  3. The length of time a typical asset is eligible for the activity type.
  4. The available treatments and their unit costs.
  5. How the application of each treatment impacts asset conditions.
  6. The quantity of each treatment to be applied in each year of the analysis.
• Operations, routine maintenance, and Organizational Strengthening costs do not have a direct impact on future conditions, and are generally not included in LCP analysis.