As the first stage to predict the future conditions in both service-ability of airport pavements and distress appearing on thieir surfaces, actural surface conditions have been surveyed and the changes of them with time have also been investigated. The primary conclusions are as follows;
1) The current surface conditions of airport pavements in Japan are rated good as a whole.
2) From among distress appearing on the pavement surfaces, cracks are apt to be developed in the relatively wider areas. Distress related with the joints is also inclined to occur in concrete pavements.
3) The concrete pavements can maintain their initial good surface conditions for a long time compared with other types of pavements. On the contrary, overlayed concrete pavemenets deteriorate most drastically.
4) The pavements with thineer surface courses and those in the northern region deteriorate faster with time.
5) The evaluation method of the pavements using PRI adopted in Japan corresponds well with that by PCI in U.S.A., but the former has the severer evaluation criteria than the latter.