DEVELOPMENT OF COMBINED PAVEMENT CONDITION PREDICTION MODEL FOR FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT

Abstract

India is a developing country and it requires lot of funds to expand the road network and to keep developed road network in good condition. Each agency responsible for the maintenance of roads Rices the problem of insufficient funds to execute necessary repairs on pavement sections. Management of road network is faced with two basic questions. (1) 1-low much money in needed for the maintenance of the network and (2) How to ensure that money goes where it is most needed? So, the capability to forecast future pavement condition has been a question of common interest for the economic reason for Pavement Management System (PMS) and the need to develop an intelligent prioritization schedule becomes even more important for the sake of efficiency. If an efficient pavement performance prediction model can be developed based on the past pavement perlrmance data, remaining services life of the pavement can be predicted and on the basis of this prediction the fund can be allocated and be utilized in better way, but if the prediction is not correct or model is not proper then the wastage of fund may affect the development of pavement network. In this study an attempt has been made to develop pavement condition indices like PCI and PSI for quick assessment of the selected hill road sections so that prioritization of road network can be done for maintenance. Since roughness is also a prime indicator of the pavement surface condition, a relationship has been developed between PSI and Roughness. Structural parameter like deflection is also a key component for pavement management system. So, an attempt has been made to develop Combined Pavement Condition Index which encompasses roughness and deflection parameter in addition of the other distress.