Development and application of a road product model

Product modeling is not a new technology any more, but its use in construction industry is still very rare, even more in the area of road design, construction and maintenance. The paper presents the evolution of a road product model, PMC, from its early concepts in 1993 to the latest implementations and applications. It explains the basic structure of the model and compares the PMC with other existing road models. Some software modules based on the latest version of the PMC road product model are presented. Further the paper presents experiences and findings of a case study, where the model and the relevant software has been tested. The paper concludes with a discussion on effectiveness of the PMC and suggests next steps for a broader acceptance of the presented technology. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.