The Via Baltica is a north-south corridor through the Baltic countries. Its purpose is to connect the three Baltic states with each other, as well as with Finland, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. The route extending from Tallinn to Warsaw is nearly 1 000 km long. The Tallinn Technical University (TTU) has joined with the international SHRP-LTPP program (Strategic Highway Research Program, Long-Term Pavement Performance) in 1993. As a part of LTPP, the Institute of Transportation of TTU in collaboration with Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and Technical Centre of Estonian Road Administration has monitored the route Via Baltica in Estonia from 1992. The Via Baltica Estonian section is 193 km long and its average traffic density is under 3 000 cars a day. Only in the vicinity of large towns (Tallinn and Paernu) does the traffic density exceed 10 000. The long term performance studies on 17 LTPP test sections include: (1) condition survey data collection; (2) roughness testing by laser techniques; (3) surface texture testing; and (4) deflection testing by falling weight deflectometer (FWD). The Texas Transportation Institute's backcalculation program MODULUS 4.0 was used for the determination of layer module from the FWD measurements. As a result of the repeat measurements and data analysis the road authorities will be able to evaluate the amount and cost of the repair work on the Via Baltica Estonian section. (A) The paper consists of this abstract.
Abstract