Development of performance measures for pedestrian sidewalk asset management

Recognising the importance of pedestrian sidewalks in supporting active transportation, some municipalities have spent millions of dollars in sidewalk condition assessment, resulting in a large amount of defect data. However, due to the lack of overall performance measures, those defect data have not been fully utilised in supporting asset-management planning. To fill the gap, this study developed two corroborating performance indicators – namely, maintenance repair index (MRI) and sidewalk condition index (SCI). Defined as the weighted sum of the numbers of defects that require repair, MRI gauges the need for repair and maintenance of a sidewalk segment and can be used to develop operation and maintenance budgets. In contrast, SCI evaluates the overall physical health of a sidewalk segment. It measures the need for replacing the entire sidewalk segment and thus can be used to assist long-term capital budgeting and planning. This paper discusses in detail the empirical calibration of the weights used in the definition of the indices. A real-life case study is presented to illustrate the technical details and practical significance of sidewalk performance evaluation using the proposed MRI and SCI.