摘要: |
Many government agencies and private consulting companies must deal with the issue of pavement maintenance. The ability to maintain an in-service pavement structure in acceptable condition from structural and functional points of view is related to many factors which are often not explicit and change with time. Although the maintenance strategy may also depend on human experience, data interpretation and agency policies, it is largely founded on the implementation of a pavement management system (PMS). A PMS is established on the complete inventory of the pavement network and includes basic pavement information such as section type (i.e., layer thickness, type of subbase and subgrade, etc.), location, size, number of traffic lanes, route designations, functional classification and section conditions (i.e., type of distresses, roughness, deflections). In addition, this system incorporates tools and methods to facilitate agencies in the decisionmaking process to maintain pavements in serviceable and functional conditions throughout their lives. A tool capable of accurately describing pavement condition represents an important asset for agencies for planning at the network level. Network level planning takes into the account agencys short and long term budget needs to identify and prioritize potential projects. Pavement condition evaluation is one of the most important and difficult processes in pavement management and is strictly connected to the rating of the distresses affecting the infrastructure. Added complexity is found in the variety of measurement procedures employed to establish distress levels on pavement structures. |