FAA AC 150/5380-7: Airport Pavement Management Program

Most airport pavement decisions come down to what to fix, when, and for how much. The FAA’s tool for making them on data is a pavement management program, a defined set of procedures for collecting, analyzing, maintaining and reporting pavement data. AC 150/5380-7B, dated 10 October 2014 and initiated by AAS-100, describes the concept, its components and the minimum content of one. It cancels the 2006 edition, 7A, and was signed by the FAA Director of Airport Safety and Standards. It treats “pavement management program,” “pavement maintenance-management program” and “pavement management system” as interchangeable terms. The pavement management system page uses the third.

What the circular is, and who it binds

Paragraph 3 sets the status. The FAA recommends the guidance, and in general use of the circular is not mandatory. Use is mandatory for all projects funded with federal grant money through the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and with revenue from the Passenger Facility Charges (PFC) Program. The paragraph points to Grant Assurance No. 11, Pavement Preventive Maintenance, Grant Assurance No. 34, Policies, Standards, and Specifications, and PFC Assurance No. 9, Standards and Specifications. Paragraph 4(b) lists, among the changes from 7A, the added information on the requirements to implement a PMP, “i.e., AIP Grant Assurance 11.”

Paragraph 1 uses stronger words than the applicability paragraph. It says federally obligated airports “must” perform a detailed inspection of airfield pavements at least once a year. The circular does not explain how that sentence and the general “not mandatory” line fit together, and it does not describe how assurances are enforced. What it does say is that use of the circular is mandatory for AIP and PFC funded projects and recommended guidance otherwise, and that paragraph 4(b) added the requirements to implement a PMP, “i.e., AIP Grant Assurance 11.” Reading the assurances themselves is the way to settle a specific airport’s position. The circular does not mention 14 CFR Part 139 at all.

What a PMP must contain

Paragraph 2.0 describes the program in general terms and Appendix A fixes the floor. Paragraph A-1.0 says an airport sponsor may use any format it deems appropriate, but the program needs, as a minimum, four things.

Pavement inventory (A-1.1). All runways, taxiways and aprons, with the pavement broken down into sections that each have similar properties. The dimensions of each section, the type of pavement surface, the year of construction or most recent major rehabilitation, and whether AIP or PFC funds were used to construct, reconstruct or repair the pavement.

Inspection schedule (A-1.2). Covered in the next section.

Record keeping (A-1.3). The airport must record and keep on file complete information about all detailed inspections and maintenance performed until the pavement system is replaced. Distress types, their locations and remedial action, scheduled or performed, must be documented.

Information retrieval (A-1.4). Any form of record keeping is acceptable so long as the records from the pavement survey can generate the required reports.

Paragraph 2.2 describes a fuller system. It has a database holding the inventory, pavement structure, history of maintenance and rehabilitation with costs, condition data and traffic data. It has an objective and repeatable way to evaluate condition, procedures to predict future condition, and procedures to work out the budget needed to hold a target PCI level or to reach a better one. Paragraph 2.3 gives the vocabulary for organizing the data. A network is a logical unit such as all pavements on an airport or all pavements in a state airport system. A branch is a part with a distinct function, such as one runway, taxiway or apron. A section is the smallest management unit for choosing treatments. The circular lists factors for dividing a branch into sections, among them structure, type, age and condition, traffic, construction history, drainage and shoulders.

The circular also draws a line between routine maintenance and rehabilitation. Paragraph 2.0 describes routine maintenance as work planned and performed on a routine basis to maintain and preserve the condition of the pavements, and gives yearly crack sealing and daily inspections as examples. It belongs to the overall pavement preservation concept, which paragraph 2.0 describes as acting while a pavement is still in good condition. The same paragraph states that maintaining and preserving a pavement in good condition, against rehabilitating one in fair to poor condition, is four to five times less expensive. That is the circular’s own cost statement, made alongside Figure 1. It gives no source for the ratio. The preventive maintenance page covers the treatments.

Inspection cycles

The cycle is the part airports ask about most, and the circular states it in three places that agree with each other: paragraph 1, paragraph 2.4.2 and Appendix A-1.2. The first two say “federally obligated airports” and Appendix A-1.2 says “airports”.

The detailed inspection is annual. Federally obligated airports must perform one for the PMP at least once a year. If a pavement condition index survey is performed as set forth in ASTM D5340, Standard Test Method for Airport Pavement Condition Index Surveys, the frequency of the detailed inspections by PCI surveys may be extended to three years. The three-year interval therefore belongs to the PCI survey, not to every kind of detailed inspection. The circular does not say what a detailed inspection that is not a PCI survey must contain.

Routine inspections sit below it. Paragraph 2.4.2 says the PMP should have annual detailed inspections and include provisions for lighter daily, weekly and monthly inspections. Appendix A-1.2 says the routine daily, weekly and monthly maintenance inspections required for operations should be addressed in the program. The PMP inspections are in addition to those routine inspections, and the circular does not replace one with the other.

Condition can also pull a PCI survey forward. Paragraph 2.2.1.4 says changes in pavement condition documented in routine inspections may call for a more detailed PCI survey, since the structural condition of a pavement cannot be determined from a visual inspection alone. At project level, paragraph 2.3.2 says each pavement specified in the network analysis should have a new detailed condition survey, and that nondestructive or destructive tests may be needed to determine load-carrying capacity. It sets no interval for those tests.

Two other measurements have their own circulars. Paragraph 2.3.2.2 says roughness measurement can help where pilots complain, and points to AC 150/5380-9. Paragraph 2.3.2.3 says friction should be measured on a periodic basis and points to AC 150/5320-12. Neither is part of the PMP inspection cycle.

Where the PCI sits

Appendix B says most PMP software uses the PCI method. ASTM D5340 covers airport pavement, and ASTM D6433 covers roads and parking lots. The circular describes the PCI as a numerical indicator that reflects the structural integrity and surface operational condition of a pavement, based on an objective measurement of the type, severity and quantity of distress. The values run from 0, a failed pavement, to 100, a new one. The PCI page and the PCI explainer cover how the number is built.

Figure B-1 shows two example rating scales. The standard scale has seven bands with boundaries at 85, 70, 55, 40, 25 and 10, named good, satisfactory, fair, poor, very poor, serious and failed. The custom scale has three bands, good, fair and poor, with boundaries at 70 and 55. The figure is titled “Example PCI Rating Scales for Airfield Pavements” and the circular sets no required action at any value. Appendix B refers distress definitions, severities and measurement to ASTM D5340 and to the PAVER distress identification manuals listed in Appendix C. The ASTM D5340 standard page sets out what that method covers and where it stops.

Two cautions come from the text. First, the circular’s wording on structure is looser than the standard’s. Paragraph 2.2.1.4 describes the PCI as a rating of the surface condition with implications of structural performance, and Appendix B speaks of structural integrity. ASTM D5340 itself states that the PCI cannot measure structural capacity. Second, AC 150/5320-6G, paragraph 4.1, says PCI numbers should be used with caution because they give only a relative indication of surface condition, and that the PCI values used for maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction are relative limits, not exact ones. Paragraph 2.2.1.2 of the PMP circular suggests PCN data may help the structural record, and AC 150/5335-5D paragraph 4 ties the update of gross weight and PCR data at AIP and PFC airports to the implementation or update of the PMP. The pavement strength page explains that side.

Where a drone survey fits

The circular describes what a program must record and how often it must look. It says nothing about how the looking is done. The table sets each tier against what a drone survey can supply.

TarmacView’s pavement condition assessment is in development and offered as early access, with no published price. A drone flight images the surface, the software rates distress by the ASTM D5340 definitions and computes a PCI for every sample unit, with the PCI per unit exported as GeoJSON and CSV. Nothing touches the pavement. A direct import into PAVER is not built. Structural capacity, friction and roughness are not measured.

How it compares with the EASA and ICAO texts

The European framework puts pavement maintenance in Regulation (EU) No 139/2014. ADR.OPS.C.005(a) requires the aerodrome operator to establish and implement a maintenance programme, including preventive maintenance where appropriate. ADR.OPS.C.010(a) requires it to inspect the surfaces of all movement areas including pavements, adjacent areas and drainage to regularly assess their condition as part of a preventive and corrective maintenance programme. Paragraph (b) adds the duties on foreign object debris, harmful irregularities and runway surface friction. AMC1 ADR.OPS.C.005 asks that the programme specify the type and frequency of inspections for each facility, but sets none for pavement condition. Intervals sit in AMC1 ADR.OPS.B.015 on movement area inspections. Its paragraph (b) says inspections covering FOD, visual aids, wildlife and surface conditions should be carried out each day, at least once for code number 1 or 2 and at least twice for code number 3 or 4. Its paragraph (c) says inspections covering other items, among them pavements and adjacent ground surfaces and drainage, should be carried out at least weekly. These are AMC, not rules.

ICAO Annex 14, Volume I, 9th edition, paragraph 10.2.1 is a Standard with the same structure. The surfaces of all movement areas including pavements, and adjacent areas, shall be inspected and their conditions monitored regularly as part of an aerodrome preventive and corrective maintenance programme, with the objective of avoiding and eliminating FOD. Paragraph 10.2.2 requires the runway surface to be maintained in a condition that prevents harmful irregularities.

In the EASA and Annex 14 texts read for this page, none uses the term PCI, names a pavement management program or sets a yearly or three-year detailed pavement inspection. The FAA circular does all three. Annex 14 paragraph 2.9.3 does require movement area inspections each day, at least once for code number 1 or 2 and at least twice for code number 3 or 4, which sits in the routine tier below the FAA’s yearly inspection. On the US side, 14 CFR 139.305 sets conditions on paved areas that air carriers use, such as edge drop-offs, holes, cracks and ponding, and paragraph (c) says FAA advisory circulars describe acceptable methods for maintaining them. AC 150/5380-7B does not point back to that rule. The EASA CS-ADR-DSN page and the ICAO Annex 14 page set out those frameworks in their own terms.