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- [Narrator] The TxDOT Maintenance Division,
uses an in-house comprehensive pavement management system,
called Pavement Analyst.
This system uses traffic, location and distress levels
to decide where road work and rehabilitation is needed.
Working with the Center for Transportation Research,
TxDOT developed models
to predict a road skid number over time,
helping improve safety and prioritizing decisions
on road maintenance around the state.
- So district engineers,
every year,
they have to develop the so-called four-year plan.
The four-year plan,
is what the different districts believe they need
to either maintain or rehabilitate in the next four years.
Traditionally,
these decisions are made based
on the so-called pavement performance indicators,
such as the amount of pavement cracking,
or the depth of pavement rotting or the riding quality.
- The current system
and similar to many other system, if not all,
they basically focus on pavement conditions.
Skid resistance also is crucial to safety.
It's not directly considered
in the optimization tool itself.
We see the gap there, we want to fill in that gap.
So basically to do so,
we'll need reliable performance models
for us to predict
what skid resistance would change over time.
And based on that, we can make recommendations
on what we need to do to improve it.
- Recently, there is more emphasis on safety
and this is what originated this pavement.
So there is no way or there was no way
to be able to predict how the friction
of the surface of the pavement will evolve with time.
So what this project did,
we went back,
we looked for the past 12 years of friction data
and we used this information,
which is actual field information
and that is what makes this project very unique.
We use actual information collected in Texas network.
This system allows and supports the district engineers
to make maintenance and rehabilitation decisions.
These rehabilitation decisions could be very subjective.
So this system allows them to make optimal decisions,
because they combine engineering principle and economics.
So the selection of the pavements
to be maintained or rehabilitated,
are then, so the tax dollars are invest
in the best possible way.
- I think this is a great research project
that it provides us the key piece
for the network-level friction management.
So by predicting the future's performance for pavements,
we actually can proactively identify and address problems
before it happens really,
resulting in a crash or a near-crash.
- As a result, if TxDOT decides
and goes ahead and make the decision
to implement the findings of these two projects,
we could be in a very unique position
to develop the most reliable friction management system
and apply to Texas network.
And as a result,
we could have one of the safest networks
in the entire country.
- [Narrator] For more information
and to find the publication for this project,
please visit the TxDOT Research Library
at the link shown below.