About the Project

In 2021, APTech was awarded a 5-year contract with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Division of Aeronautics to provide updates to the state’s Airport Pavement Management System (APMS). This project continues a relationship with the Division that extends back to 1996.

This update will allow stakeholders—including CDOT, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and individual airports—to make informed decisions on where and how to direct funds for the State’s airport pavement assets. To achieve this goal, APTech is evaluating the current pavement conditions by performing Pavement Condition Index (PCI) inspections.

After the inspections have been completed, APTech uses the collected data to update the state’s PAVER database and develop pavement performance models. This data are used to generate pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) recommendations. CDOT will then use the M&R recommendations, along with future pavement performance predictions, to prepare and evaluate capital improvement plans for each airport. The collected data and analysis results of each year’s APMS update are easily accessible through APTech’s web-based interactive pavement management tool, IDEA.

A key to the success of this project is the long-term partnership between APTech and the CDOT Division of Aeronautics. A team consisting of an APTech engineer and a CDOT staff members perform PCI evaluations at one-third of the 62 airports each year. CDOT facilitates the process by obtaining information relating to pavement maintenance, rehabilitation, and construction at the project airports and assisting with the development of unit costs used in the M&R analysis.

Through this partnership, APTech provides CDOT first-hand knowledge of airport pavement conditions, and in turn, APTech receives accurate construction records and costs to update the APMS’s PAVER database and IDEA.