Spatial Pavement Condition for Specific Urban Roads in Karbala City

Abstract

Roadway pavements are an important structural element in most countries. For preserving the status of pavements at a satisfactory level of service, attention should be paid to managing maintenance work and applying it in the appropriate time. The survey of the pavement distress and status, significantly helps improving the system of managing the pavement (PMS) capabilities. This research aims to conduct spatial analysis for pavement conditions at arterial streets. Two major roads were selected in the city of Karbala, AL-Mulhaq and Dhbat Al-Osra street. The data collection process was performed based on the type of distress, severity and quantity. Analyzing the collected data and evaluating the index of pavement conditions (PCI) was carried out by software PAVER version 6.5.7. Consequently, estimation of position intensity was conducted by ArcGIS software: a spatial analysis using Points Density Estimation (PDE) and Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW). PDE for applications of pavement status allows the distress density extractions and visualizations in elected location or road or network that grants the decision-maker an advanced view of the problem in the region. In this study, PDE is applied to create a map for possible distress hotspots depending on selected distress data. The outcome of this study indicates the appropriateness of the entitlement maintenance heat map for a specific road, which provides a clear denotation of the pavement layers damage on the heat map displayed in relation to the colors intensity. For example, a segment of high PCI score can include very degrading units of low PCI score owing to many faults. Thus, it could be inferred that the PCI segment at all units reflects the truth of pavement condition. The heat map established explains degradation situations for all units and supplies the last vision of pavement condition at the arterial positions surveyed.