Axle Load Survey to Established Latest Truck Factors on Various Road Section

Abstract

In many countries road traffic is growing rapidly in volume, size and weight of the vehicles. As a consequence, highway engineers are concerned with designing new roads or the strengthening of existing road surfaces which require reliable information about the distribution of axle loads for existing traffic as well as information of national or regional axle load trends. This information is required for accurate forecasts of the axle loads that a road will have to carry over its design life. The importance of reliable traffic information for pavement design purposes is obvious by the widely accepted engineering law that the degree of pavement damage caused by an axle load is proportional to approximately the fourth power of the axle load. This implies that the heaviest ten percent of axle loads can often cause more pavement damage than the rest of the traffic combined. To provide adequate information on axle load distributions, roadside surveys of axle loads are required. Such surveys can conveniently be made using portable wheel or axle weighing devices that are widely available. This project describes the methodology and procedures required to carry out both traffic counts and axle load surveys. This also includes methods of traffic volume and axle load data analysis for pavement design and rehabilitation purposes. A traffic loading evaluation should be performed as part of the overall evaluation of a pavement to assist in determining rehabilitation needs. An evaluation of traffic loading is also important for initial design.