Management of Load Balance and its Impact on Pavement Conditions A Case Study on Adama – Mille Route
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Date
2016-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Road infrastructure is one of the transport infrastructures that play an important role in improving the accessibility of areas and the residents’ mobility. However, the availability of different loading condition between the two directions of the road causes deterioration of more heavily trafficked lane of the pavement before reaching the design life. This is due to the absence of different treatment for heavily trafficked lane during pavement design, construction or service stage. The objective of this research was to study the management of load balance in the two directions of the road and its impact on pavement conditions; and to develop solutions to minimize the constraints causing pavement damages. The research was conducted using both primary and secondary data. Primary data has been collected through measurement, observation and questionnaire; and secondary data has been collected from relevant private and governmental offices. The questionnaire is prepared for four target groups namely; pavement Engineers, drivers, vehicle weight and size control team; and control station staff. To analyze the data AASHTO Fourth Power Law, Surface Damage Index (Is), Little’s Law and Descriptive Statistics has been used. From the study, it was found that, the actual pavement service life of heavily trafficked lane was reduced by 71% and the actual pavement service life of less trafficked lane was increased by 55% when compared with the pavement design life. The existing load also caused 79.4% load associated failures on heavily trafficked lane and only 4% load associated failures on less trafficked lane which includes the effect of overtaking. Furthermore, due to unavailability of vehicle weight and size control station at the loading place, vehicles are weighed after damaged 401 Km length of road pavement and the penalty taken on the overloaded vehicles is not as per the regulation. Finally, recommendations have been made to use combined pavement or design the lanes separately and to establish effective, strict, uniform and adequate vehicle weight and size control stations at the loading place.
Keywords: Freight Transport, Road Infrastructure, Load Balance, Load Associated Failure, Pavement Deterioration, Pavement Service Life, Pavement Surface Condition, Management
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Keywords
Freight Transport; Road Infrastructure; Load Balance; Load Associated Failure; Pavement Deterioration; Pavement Service Life; Pavement Surface Condition; Management