To quantitatively identify the maintenance demand for each highway segments in the pavement maintenance scheme design, a mathematical model of uniform segment division was established and an app roach of applying cluster analysis theory to the uniform segment division and evaluation of pavement maintenance demand was proposed. The actual maintenance project of a highway carried out in Guangdong province was cited as an example to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. It is proved that the cluster analysis can eliminate human factors in classification without being constrained by the quantities of samples, considering multiple pavement distress indexes and the continuity of samples. Thus it is evident that cluster analysis is an efficient analytical tool in uniform segment division and evaluation of maintenance demand.

       Key words: preventive maintenance; maintenance demand; segment division; cluster analysis