Analysis of Truck Traffic Growth for Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide

In the newly developed NCHRP 1-37A Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide, very detailed truck traffic information is required for pavement design, mainly in two aspects: axle load and traffic volume. Considerable research has been conducted to characterize and model axle load spectra, but little work has been done to analyze the growth pattern of truck traffic volume, sensitivity of pavement responses to growth rate, and to develop procedures for predicting truck traffic growth rate based on roadway characteristics and socio-economic data. This paper focuses on analysis in these three aspects, using the truck traffic data collected by Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) stations on California highways. Results showed that a linear growth model fits the truck traffic growth better than a compound growth model. Growth rates estimated from less than six years data have large variation, which will lead to significant errors in pavement response prediction. Different truck classes have different growth patterns and are affected differently by roadway and socio-economic characteristics.

• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Lu, Qing
  • Zhang, Yu
  • Harvey, John T
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 22p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Axle load force; Pavement design; Pavement performance; Pavements; Traffic data; Traffic volume; Truck traffic; Weigh in motion
• Identifier Terms: Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide
• Uncontrolled Terms: Pavement response data
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01043854
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-1592
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 8 2007 6:14PM