Pavement evaluation for low volume roads

Abstract

Rural roads are often treated as the last link of the transport network. India has a rural road network of about 2.7 million km developed and this constitutes over 80 per cent of the total road network length. The performance of road network in low volume roads will be significantly influenced by degree of maintenance. In the functional behaviour study, different types and degrees or severity of distress are evaluated and time series distresses data are used to predict the pavement performance. Based on performance prediction models it is possible to select the best alternative rehabilitation or maintenance measure. In the present investigation four rural road sections were identified in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. Distress data covers the rutting, crackling, potholes, edge break and traffic volume data, sub-grade soil properties were taken into consideration, time series distress data was developed using Highway Development Management (HDM-4) software and prediction models for cracking and ravelling for responsixe and scheduled criteria were developed using statistical tool, NCSS. In addition to this different maintenance and improvement alternatives were also studied to upkeep the pavement life.