A field where PMS can be effectively implemented but has not been extensively applied is parking lots and freight transfer yards. Union Pacific, one of the largest railroad companies in the U.S., has faced a dilemma whether to continue its current need-based pavement maintenance and rehabilitation practice or to implement a more organized PMS like the ones used for highways, Union Pacific owns a large number of paved facilities, including intermodal freight and automotive transfer facilities, and spends approximately $8 to $10 million a year in pavement maintenance system-wide. Some of them experience heavy loading, like the loading/unloading area of intermodal freight transfer yards, while others, like automobile transfer yards, undergo light loading just like regular parking lots except for certain paths in the facility where automobile carriers travel. This paper discusses issues related to implementing a pavement management system to parking lots and freight yards, using Union Pacific Railroad's pavement management dilemma as a case and presents a conceptual framework for such pavement management systems. We tentatively name this type of pavement management system site pavement management system (SPMS) to distinguish it from existing pavement management systems (PMS) for highways.
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