Short term performance and effect of speed humps on pavement condition of Alexandria Governorate roads

Abstract

The road network in Alexandria Governorate includes approximately 3800km of roads. In the recent years, it was observed that some of these roads failed prematurely within 3–5years of construction. In addition, there has been an increased use of speed humps that were placed with obtaining proper permits and pavement distresses were observed near these humps.A research study was initiated to evaluate the performance of pavements in Alexandria Governorate, to identify the main deterioration patterns on these pavements, and to investigate the possible effect of illegal speed humps on condition. The research methodology involved selecting a representative sample of the pavement projects and analyzing the pavement condition of these projects both at the network level and at the project level.Some performance trends were observed and found to be statistically significant, including superior short-term performance of projects with good or average construction QC records when compared to poor construction QC records. Raveling was the most widely observed distress, while load-related distresses were not common. The analysis also showed that the presence of improper speed humps significantly affected the pavement condition, reducing the PCI of the pavement sections by up to 19 PCI points.