Best practices for achieving and measuring pavement smoothness, a synthesis of state-of-practice.

PDFTech ReportFHWA/LA.14/550LTRC Number: 14-1PFState Project Number: 30001420SmoothnessPavementsRoughnessRide qualityState of the practiceSpecificationsBest practicesLouisianaLouisiana Transportation Research CenterMerritt, David K.Chang, George K.Rutledge, Jennifer L.Transtec Group, Inc.United States. Federal Highway AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionPavement smoothness specifications have evolved significantly over the past decade. More and morestates are moving away from profilograph-based smoothness specifications to IRI-based specifications.Unfortunately, a limited history with the usage of IRI-based specifications has led to some confusionover how best to structure a specification in terms of test methods and profiling equipment, thresholdsfor full pay/incentive/disincentive, and requirements for localized roughness or \ue2\u20ac\u153must correct\ue2\u20ac? areas.This limited history has also led to contractors who were used to profilograph-based specificationsstruggling to achieve the same level of quality under IRI-based specifications. This synthesissummarizes the current state-of-the-practice for IRI-based pavement smoothness specifications in theUS. It highlights recent and current research related the pavement smoothness and provides general bestpractices for construction to help achieve requirements for IRI-based specifications