Evaluation of rigid pavement using the Pavement Condition Index: A Case Study

Abstract

The pavement is one of the most important components infrastructures of the transport, and so, that has a major and direct effect on the general levels of transportation safety, as well to providing transport services with high quality for movement of people and goods. It is difficult to keep the road on same current specifications that was it since the beginning of the opening of traffic. This requires periodic and preventive maintenance. A methodology was suggested to inspect the current pavement condition; this study focuses on concrete pavements only. A manual inspection has been done according to ASTM D 6433. Depending on two methods; the current pavement condition was calculated by manual calculations and Micro PAVER software method 5.2. The study area is divided into two sides and different sections. Each side or section is divided into sample units. The inspection includes the assessment of the distress type and severity which is assessed by visual inspection for each sample unit and the quantity measurement of each distress. Also, Arc Map 9.3 has been employed in this study for the selected roads in the study area. Therefore, it is necessary to establish or implement an integrated maintenance system for each road in the presented study area, in addition to the establishment of such a system in the future to include all the main and important roads within the province of Baghdad using the GIS program). In this study, two major roads were surveyed; the pavement type is rigid. One of these roads is Salah Al-Deen Road with both sides and the other road is one segment of the Baghdad International Airport Road. The length for each side and section for these roads are 8Km, 7.25Km, respectively. The total length of study area is 23.25 km. Results indicated that the pavement condition index PCI for the two roads mentioned above using manual calculations were as follows; 64.3 and 61.5 for side1 & 2 of Salah Al-Deen Road, respectively, and 80.9 for the segment of Baghdad International Airport Road. While using Micro PAVER software the results were as follows; 62 and 61 for side 1& 2 of Salah Al-Deen Road, respectively, and 80 for segment of Baghdad International Airport Road. The priority of maintenance for the selected roads in the study were as follows; the first road to be maintenance is side 2 of Salah Al-Deen Road, then side 1 for the same road and finally the Baghdad International Airport Road segment.