Ride Specifications

Abstract

Road roughness is a major factor in pavement condition because of its effects on pavement resurfacing and vehicle operating costs. Rougher pavements require more frequent resurfacing, generate complaints from highway users, reduce optimum travel speeds, disrupt traffic flow, and create safety hazards. Ride specification is one of the tools practiced by almost all state agencies including the Virginia Department of Transportation (DOT) to achieve the desired smoothness on the road. A ride specification dictates the level of smoothness from paving projects and can adjust the contractor's payment, depending on the finished ride. Virginia DOT's experience, accomplishments, and challenges with ride specifications are presented. Through application of the ride specification during the past decade, the ride quality on Virginia's rideability project roads has continued to improve. The average roughness after paving has improved dramatically in the past few years compared with that of the early 2000s. Between 2005 and 2009, 3,068 lane miles were paved according to the ride specification and a net bonus of $4,928,422 was paid to contractors. The benefit of having smoother roads could result in direct savings to an agency from deferring resurfacing activities by about 2 years and substantial savings in terms of fuel efficiency (especially for the trucks), reduced congestion due to deferred resurfacing, reduced vehicle maintenance costs (from smoother roads), and other benefits. The estimated benefits from applying the ride specification during 2005 to 2009 are found to far outweigh the cost.