Modeling Pavement Performance Indices in Harsh Climate Regions

Abstract

Newfoundland and Labrador lies in the northeastern corner of North America. Road durability in this province is negatively affected by the harsh climate and ever-increasing traffic loads. The provincial five-year road plan emphasizes the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing pavements. For this purpose, basic parameters determining pavement condition should be evaluated. These include the determination of International Roughness Index (IRI), Present Serviceability Rating (PSR), and Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of roads in the city of St. John’s, Newfoundland. A smartphone application called TotalPave was used to measure IRI values. To compute PCI, ASTM International D6433-18 standard was adopted, and a questionnaire was distributed among drivers to obtain PSR. In addition, pavement distress data were collected for major and minor roads. Pavement distresses such as rutting, block cracking, fatigue cracking, longitudinal cracking, transverse cracking, delamination, potholes, and patching were analyzed, and a correlation was developed between the roughness and distress measurements. Roads were found to be in a noticeably inferior condition and PCI values correlated the most with the extent of pavement distresses.