Pavement deterioration or the development of road roughness is currently gauged by using the International Roughness Index (IRI). However, IRI does not provide information regarding the various modes of pavement distress. The subdivision of the roughness spectrum of the longitudinal profile of a pavement surface into certain wavebands can aid the interpretation of pavement deterioration, as the various wavebands are associated with different pavement distress modes. Power Spectral Density analysis (PSD) of longitudinal road profiles has been shown to be useful in viewing the distribution and extent of the different roughness wavelengths within road profiles. This paper uses PSD analysis to evaluate the development of pavement deterioration in two roughness wavebands (short and long) for several road sections along four Victorian highways. The results have shown that the growth rate in these two wavebands is different. This supports the view that the causes of the short and long wavelength roughness are separate, and this information could lead to more accurate rehabilitation strategies being adopted to manage the road network more efficiently. (A)
Abstract