EVALUATION OF THE PCA ROAD METER

THE ACCURACY AND COMPARABILITY OF PAVEMENT RATING TEAMS AND ROAD METERS ARE DISCUSSED. DURING 1966 EACH OF THE NINE CONSTRUCTION DISTRICTS IN MINNESOTA ESTABLISHED A RATING TEAM TO COVER SOME PART OF 6000 MILES OF OLD AND INFERIOR HIGHWAYS WITHIN THE STATE. A TEAM FROM THE STATE RESEARCH OFFICE THEN RATED A SAMPLE OF THE ROADS COVERED BY EACH DISTRICT TEAM. IT WAS FOUND THAT ALTHOUGH THE AVERAGE DEVIATION WAS QUITE LOW, THE RANGE WAS QUITE GREAT. FOR A 95% PROBABILITY OF RATING A PAVEMENT AT ITS TRUE PRESENT SERVICEABILITY, THE NUMBER OF RATERS REQUIRED RANGED FROM THREE FOR A PERMISSIBLE ERROR OF 0.9 TO 31 FOR A PERMISSIBLE ERROR OF 0.3. ON THE OTHER HAND, SOME TEAMS DISPLAYED EXCELLENT CONSISTENCY AND HIGHLY ACCURATE RATINGS. THE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT THEN DECIDED TO EMPLOY A ROAD METER TO ASCERTAIN PSR AND TO COMPARE THE RESULTS WITH A PANEL OF SIX RATERS. IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT THE STANDARD DEVIATION OF RATER PANEL/ROAD METER RESULTS WAS NEARLY TWICE AS HIGH FOR BITUMINOUS PAVEMENTS AS FOR CONCRETE, SUGGESTING THAT SEPARATE CURVES SHOULD BE USED FOR THE TWO PAVEMENT TYPES. ROAD METER REPRODUCIBILITY TESTS WERE RUN TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTS OF TIRE TYPE AND PRESSURE, CAR SPEED, CAR LOAD, AIR TEMPERATURE, WIND VELOCITY AND DIRECTION, CAR MAKE AND SUSPENSION SYSTEM, AND CHANGES IN CAR CONDITION AS A RESULT OF USE. UNIFORMITY OF RATINGS BETWEEN ROAD METERS PLACED IN EACH DISTRICT WERE ALSO EVALUATED, AND COST DATA WERE COMPILED. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS ARE REPORTED. AN OVERALL CONCLUSION IS THAT THE ROAD METER IS SUPERIOR TO THE THREE- MAN RATING TEAM AS A METHOD OF DETERMINING RIDE QUALITY.

• Record URL:
  • https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/sr/sr133/133-007.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • APP. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

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  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Hughes, Patrick C
• Conference:
  • Workshop on Pavement Evaluation Using Road Meters
  • Location: West Lafayette Indiana, United States
  • Date: 1972-4-18 to 1972-4-20
• Publication Date: 1973

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 23-40
• Monograph Title: PAVEMENT EVALUATION USING ROAD METERS
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Special Report
  • Issue Number: 133
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bituminous pavements; Concrete pavements; Drivers; Equipment; Evaluation; Pavements; Ratings; Riding qualities; Road meters; Statistical analysis
• Non-Preferred Terms: Serviceability
• Uncontrolled Terms: Sufficiency rating
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Design; Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00207531
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: May 21 1973 12:00AM