It is believed that the general public perceives a good road as one that provides a smooth ride. Studies at the road test sponsored by the American Association of State Highway Officials showed that the subjective evaluation of the pavement based on mean panel ratings was primarily influenced by roughness. Therefore, the development of roughness on pavements is a major issue for highway agencies. Although pavement smoothness has been recognized as one of the important measures of pavement performance, the contribution of factors such as pavement structure, rehabilitation techniques, climatic conditions, traffic levels, layer materials and properties, and pavement distress to changes in pavement smoothness are not well documented. Without this information, the selection of appropriate pavement design structure, design features, and rehabilitation strategies that will ensure long-term smoothness is a difficult task. The data collected for the Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) study provides an opportunity to investigate the effect of these factors on the development of roughness. In this research project, data available in the LTPP Information Management System (IMS) was used to determine the effect of factors such as design and rehabilitation parameters, climatic conditions, traffic levels, material properties, and extent and severity of distress that cause changes in pavement smoothness. For the purposes of this research, the International Roughness Index (IRI) was used as the measure of pavement smoothness. The IRI is a smoothness index that is widely used in the United States, and can be calculated for any profile that is measured by an inertial profiler. The LTPP program consists of two complementary programs, the General Pavement Studies(GPS) and Specific Pavement Studies (SPS).
LTPP Data Analysis: Factors Affecting Pavement Smoothness
2001
300 pages
Report
No indication
English
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