For reasons of climate and economy, Australia's roads are typically of light construction. However,new challenges are emerging as the primary road network nears completion and the volume, mass and tyre pressures of road freight vehicles increases. Between 1971 and 1991 the amount of road freight in Australia increased from 27 billion to 95 billion tonne-km per year and more than two-thirds of the freight transported is hauled by road. In addition, whilst car travel veh-km in Australia has increased at about the same rate as the Gross National Product (GNP) since 1971, the magnitude of the truck freight task has increased about four-fold. By the early 1980s it was realised that, as the emphasis on the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing facilities continued to increase, here was a need to determine cost-effective asset management strategies, improve rehabilitation design procedures and validate the use of innovative materials. Consequently, in 1983, the (then) National Association of Australian State Road Authorities (now AUSTROADS) agreed to provide funding for the development and construction of an accelerated testing facility which would allow new technologies and practices to be rapidly evaluated and also provide the essential link between the field performance of pavements and the laboratory characterisation of pavement materials.The facility is owned and operated by ARRB Transport Research Limited (ARRB TR) on behalf of AUSTROADS. This paper describes the Australian Accelerated Loading Facility (ALF) and summarises the program from 1984 to the present day. (A)
Samenvatting