Importance of a Pavement Management System in Assessing Pavement Damage from Natural Disasters: A Case Study to Assess the Damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

In 2005, Louisiana was hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, causing devastating damage to its infrastructure. Due to the hurricanes, part of Jefferson Parish’s (JP) road network was submerged under water for weeks and other parts were subject to unusually heavy traffic loading. As such, the pavements, although appearing unaffected, may be suffering from undetected damage in the roadbed soils that could result in failures at a time when emergency federal funds are no longer available. This paper describes a study performed to assess the extent of damage to JP’s road pavements caused by the hurricanes