In response to the growing importance of sustainable undertaking, purchasing and building, designers, consultants and pavement managers now tend to make more rational decisions than before when comparing the pros and cons of the construction, maintenance and management of various types of road pavements. Asphalt and concrete pavements offer specific advantages that need to be compared when selecting the most favourable option for long-life pavements. Financial decisions can be based on an analysis of whole life costs, but other important aspects are more difficult to quantify. Factors such as construction risks, the need for maintenance and its impact on accessibility, congestion, road user safety and energy emissions must be qualified and weighted when conducting a
comprehensive comparison of pavement performance. A CROW study group has developed a decision support model that can be used to take into account economic, technical, environmental and other factors when selecting a certain type of road pavement. Besides the traditional road pavement materials that can be taken into account, also new materials like light-weight embankment materials, low temperature asphalt, steel fibre reinforced concrete and concrete with recycled aggregates are available in the materials database. The paper describes the methodology used and presents three examples of the model's application in the Netherlands.