Heavy load impact on low volume road pavement

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Latvian low volume roads and particular – their pavements shows serious problems in form of cracking, rutting, other deformations and which finally leads to weak serviceability and short lifetime of the road structure. In many cases these problems has been associated with overloaded vehicles and their impact. To find how heavy traffic loads impact road structure and evaluate their prevention possibilities, as well as to investigate the efficiency of freight transport, and establish conditions that will allow to optimize it, a study is carried out in Riga Technical university in cooperation with Latvian State Forests SC. As option for load impact reducing, the Central Tire Inflate system (CTI), installed on the test vehicle, is being checked. The research methodology is based on deflection measurements with LWD together with dielectric constant measurements in the road structure using percometer. Measurements are taken in the various pavement structure layers in different depths, during full-scale loading and in different moisture/temperature conditions. Increase of the contact surface is established using the CTI system, which was installed on the test vehicle. The advisable intensity and load for heavy traffic considering road conditions were established during the study.