Professor A.C. Collop (formerly NTEC) - Principal Investigator
Dr. N.H. Thom (NTEC) - Principal Investigator
Muhammad Mubaraki - Research Student
Sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau in UK
Background
The subject of Pavement Management Systems (PMS) consists of a comprehensive, coordinated set of activities associated with planning, design, construction, maintenance, and evaluation of pavements. Pavement condition and pavement prediction models are topics of central concern in a PMS. Most designers and maintenance personal must consider pavement condition in their activities. Such questions as does this road need maintenance? Should this pavement be rebuilt?
Pavement evaluation is a phase of the pavement management system that has received considerable attention by a number of agencies during the past four decades. It concludes the establishment of evaluation sections, the actual periodic measurement of such pavement characteristics as structural capacity, roughness, distress, and skid resistance.
Aims and objectives
The project will study different factors on pavement condition either urban main and secondary roads or Inter-Urban roads.
- Urban Distress Index (UDI) and Pavement Condition Rating (PCR)
- Maintenance Types
- Pavement Age (Last major maintenance date)
- Pavement characteristics
- Traffic Volume
- Climatic Condition
- Drainage
- Contractors
- Zones
Methods
A journey was conducted to collect data for Saudi Urban and Rural networks from the Municipalities, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MMORA), and Ministry of Transport (MOT).
Works involved on this project are
- data collection
- developing databases
- analysing the developed databases
- develop models for prediction of overall pavement condition and individual distress modes
- validation process
- the implantation of a PMS on Saudi Rods.
Eight databases have been developed. 41 relationships have been drawing to be ready for analysis, for example
- Best fit for the data
- Polynomial Regression equation
- Forcing a curve
- 95% confidence interval
- Statistical variation to check the uncertainty
- Overall condition PCR and UDI modelling
- ANOVA to check parameters affecting PCR and UDI
- Individual distresses modelling
- Both PCR & UDI and Distress
- ANOVA to check parameters affecting each distress
- Annual rate of deterioration
- Rate of deterioration for each Contractor
- Rate of deterioration for each Zone.
In addition to this, Skid resistance Number is going to be studied for Inter-Urban Roads.