Mechanistic-Based Pavement Damage Associated Cost from Oversize and Overweight Vehicles in Nevada.

2017PDFTech Report609-13-803Flexible pavementsHeavy duty trucksOversize loadsOverweight loadsBus rapid transitPavement performanceAxle loadsMechanistic-empirical pavement designFlexible PavementOverweight VehiclesBus Rapid TransitPermitsPavement DamageRemaining Service LifeCost AllocationNevadaUnited StatesNevada. Dept. of TransportationHajj, ElieBatioja-Alvarez, Dario D.Siddharthan, Raj V.University of Nevada, Reno. Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringNevada. Dept. of TransportationUS Transportation CollectionThe movement of overweight (OW) vehicles has become more common over the years due to its vital necessity for many important industries such as chemical, oil, defense, etc. Using OW vehicles reduces the number of vehicles on highways, potentially decreasing traffic congestion and emissions. However, the operation of large and heavy vehicles can lead to a speedy deterioration of the roadway system; hence necessitating additional resources to maintain the conditions of roadway pavements at an acceptable level. The approach presented in this report allows for the estimation of pavement damage associated costs (PDAC) attributable to OW vehicle moves. The PDAC can be estimated for different OW axle loadings and configurations with due considerations given to locally-calibrated pavement distress models, existing pavement condition, different pavement repair options, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). The approach uses the same information currently requested by NDOT during the OW permit application process and provides a realistic methodology to assess pavement damage from single-trip and multi-trip OW scenarios. In the methodology, the damage from OW vehicles is compared to that caused by a standard vehicle. It should be noted that the costs associated to the pavement damage caused by lighter vehicles (GVW up to 80,000 lb) is assumed to be already covered by fuel taxes and will be reflected in a PDAC of zero dollars. As part of this study a ten-year NDOT over-dimensional permit database containing 367,595 entries was analyzed. Along with the ten-year permit database, thousands of actual over-dimensional permit forms which described GVW and the entire axle and load configurations of the permitted vehicles were analyzed. The purpose of the analysis was the identification and classification of trends, GVW, axle loads/tire loads and other important characteristics of the OW movements in Nevada. This analysis enabled the design of a comprehensive experimental plan of pavement analyses required to model OW vehicles under the different loading, pavement temperature, and speed conditions found in Nevada. The presented methodology provides useful ways to assess pavement damage from OW vehicles eliminating the need for conducting individual deterministic pavement analysis assessments. Through comparative analysis it was found that the proposed methodology produces PDAC values that are comparable to those levied by other SHAs that implement distance and weight-distance fee structures. It was also estimated that the PDAC methodology could produce significant increase in revenue when assuming average input values. However, such increase in revenue is mostly associated to OW vehicles in the heaviest categories