Characterizing Rider Safety in terms of Asphalt Pavement Surface Texture

The overall goal of pavement design is to meet the intended service life and more importantly to provide a safe riding surface for the traveling public. Therefore, pavements can experience structural failure (i.e. rutting or cracking) or functional failures, where the pavement becomes unsafe from a riders perspective due to a lack of sufficient surface texture (friction). Several countries within the European Union have specifications related to measurement of surface texture already in place to ensure a minimum level of friction. The barrier to implementing similar practices in the United States is in further development of friction measurement and analysis methods. Measuring pavement friction involves specialized equipment with a relatively high initial cost. In addition, many devices require that measurements be made on field pavement sections, incurring further delay in opening new pavement to traffic. Several recent studies have correlated asphalt pavement surface texture with friction using relatively inexpensive, non-intrusive devices. These devices can be used in the laboratory as well as in the field and have shown promise in estimating not only pavement surface texture and friction, but also noise emissions. With further development, these methods will give pavement designers the necessary tools to evaluate asphalt pavement surface texture in terms of pavement friction and promoting the development of new specifications. This project refines and applies these methods to several plant produced mixtures to estimate surface texture and friction. Limits on the mix design parameters most affecting rider safety (friction) will be proposed.

• 
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/26831
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)

  University of Wisconsin, Madison
  1415 Engineering Drive, 2205 Engineering Hall
  Madison, WI  United States  53706

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Bahia, Hussain U
  • Rajaei, Mozhdeh
  • Sefidmazgi, Nima Roohi
• Publication Date: 2013-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 56p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asphalt pavements; Friction; Highway safety; Measuring methods; Mix design; Rolling contact; Texture; Tire/pavement noise
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pavements; Safety and Human Factors; I23: Properties of Road Surfaces;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01505599
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: CFIRE 07-08
• Contract Numbers: DTRT06-G-0020
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, RITA, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 27 2014 11:27AM