Research Report 183 Road profile deterioration as an indicator of structural condition

Publication Year

1989

Document Status

Current

Abstract

Longitudinal profile and rut depth have been monitored over a period of six years on over one thousand, 20m long test sections spread over motorway and trunk road sites using the TRRL High-speed Road Monitor (HRM). Trends in profile with time were compared with assessments of structural condition using visual inspection, and deflection. Changes in longitudinal profile for features of less than 3m wavelength over a period of two years were found to reflect significant pavement deterioration as assessed by visual inspection. Also, this measure of profile change was found to increase significantly with a decrease in the residual life of pavements as estimated from deflection under a rolling wheel. Criteria, based on the proportional change in longitudinal profile have been defined for use in detecting significant pavement distress in fully flexile pavements and those with a lean concrete roadbase.

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