TxDOT Research Library - TxDOT Research Project

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Evaluation of Pavement Rutting and Distress Measurements

What Was the Need?

The TxDOT Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) is used to monitor statewide pavement condition and to evaluate the effectiveness of pavement maintenance and rehabilitation treatments. PMIS is also used to report progress towards the annual statewide pavement condition goal (90 percent of lane miles in "good" or better condition).

TxDOT has developed a state-of-the-art 3-D system for rut measurements. The development of a system to more accurately measure and quantify roadway cracking is also currently underway. These systems will allow the assessment of road performance at both the network- and project-levels and potentially eliminate the need for manual visual assessments to rate pavement distress.

Based on preliminary reports from other State agencies, adoption of the new system may indicate an "apparent" increase in overall pavement rutting. Consequently, current algorithms and utility functions used in PMIS will require revision to reflect the improved accuracy of these new systems.

What's the Solution?

This project’s primary objective was to compare the TxDOT system’s accuracy and precision to state-of-the-art commercially available automated or semi-automated systems to help inform decisions about data collection methods used for TxDOT’s Pavement Management Information System (PMIS).

Project Number

0-6663

Status

Completed

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