How Florida’s I-595 Express uses AIM to make smarter paving decisions for performance-based road contracts.
Client:
I-595 Express
Location:
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Consulting Partner:
Tetra Tech, supported by Probit
Asset Types:
Highways, toll roads, flyovers, pavements
AIM Version Used:
AIM 4.0
Key Outcome:
Up to 40% cost-saving potential and dramatically faster maintenance planning in a P3 compliance environment
I-595 Express is the operator of a major transportation corridor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, comprising a three-lane reversible toll road, general-purpose lanes, and frontage roads.
Managed as a Public-Private Partnership (P3), the concessionaire is contractually obliged by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to maintain the entire corridor to exacting performance standards.
Failure to meet these benchmarks can result in substantial financial penalties, making data accuracy, predictive planning and timely intervention essential.
The challenge
Under the terms of the P3 agreement, I-595 Express must demonstrate continuous compliance with FDOT’s pavement condition requirements. This involves detailed monitoring and scheduling of maintenance, particularly road resurfacing and rehabilitation.
However, the corridor’s complexity, with multiple flyovers, underpasses, and overpasses, makes planning difficult. Traditional methods couldn’t account for the many interrelated factors influencing road condition, including design variation, construction history, materials, climate, and traffic loading.
A more granular, intelligent, and predictive solution was needed; one that could optimise lifecycle performance and demonstrate long-term value to both the public and investors.
Who worked on this project?
Tetra Tech, a leading engineering and asset management consultancy, was the primary delivery partner for this programme. Their transportation team, led by Bryan Palsat, provided expert data collection and pavement analysis.
Probit worked alongside Tetra Tech in a close, eight-month collaboration to configure and deploy AIM.
A dedicated technical working group brought together engineers and modellers from both organisations to replicate FDOT’s (Florida Department of Transport) existing roadway performance models inside AIM, and then enhance them with AIM’s advanced scenario and risk capabilities.
How was AIM used?
AIM 4.0 was deployed to support high-resolution investment modelling and year-on-year paving optimisation for the I-595 corridor. Key features included:
- Asset-Level Optimisation – each segment of pavement was modelled individually, allowing precise targeting of interventions.
- Risk Maps – AIM generated visual overlays linking asset deterioration, service impact, and intervention benefits, including carbon and sustainability metrics.
- Scenario Planning – the Gurobi-powered optimisation engine ran millions of ‘what-if’ simulations in minutes, testing maintenance strategies under cost, risk, and compliance constraints.
- Predictive Analytics – performance models forecast future condition based on parameters like surface thickness, climate, and traffic patterns, enabling proactive rather than reactive planning.
- Visualisation and Reporting – outputs were available via AIM’s RiskView dashboard and could be exported to Excel, GIS, and Tableau through AIM’s open Data API.
By integrating all physical, financial, and performance data, AIM provided the client with a transparent, repeatable way to schedule work, justify spend, and avoid penalties.
The results
AIM’s impact on the I-595 project was immediate and measurable:
- 10% additional savings compared to the previous method, equating to millions of dollars saved across the lifecycle of the contract.
- 15–40% potential savings estimated for similar pavement systems by delaying rehabilitation without increasing risk.
- Planning cycle reduced from months to minutes, enabling fast decision-making and stronger investor confidence.
- Greater regulatory credibility, with clear forecasting of work and funding needs year by year, critical in a PPP environment.
By shifting from manual planning to precision modelling, the project team gained both financial efficiency and reputational advantage.
Bryan Palsat
Manager - Transportation Asset Management, Tetra Tech
Technical insight
A key technical milestone was AIM’s ability to replicate the World Bank’s HDM-4 pavement model, already in use by the client, and build upon it. AIM extended this foundation with:
- Full granular deterioration modelling at the level of individual road segments
- Monetisation of failure risk across both financial and sustainability axes
- Integration with external systems via AIM’s Data API
- Use of the Gurobi Mixed Integer Programming solver for high-speed, large-scale optimisation
This enabled AIM to become a high-trust planning system within a heavily contractual environment, combining engineering rigour with economic performance modelling.
What followed for I-595, Tetra Tech and AIM?
Following the success of I-595, Tetra Tech plans to roll out AIM across other transportation networks in Canada and beyond.
The team is exploring new applications for AIM’s risk modelling, including bridges, intersections, and even historic buildings. In urban environments where maintenance decisions are constrained by space, disruption, and stakeholder impact, AIM’s ability to process complexity at speed is seen as a breakthrough.
Be AIM’s next success story
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