Asset Management

The impact of heavy vehicles on pavement surfacings needs to be quantified over typical surfacing lifecycles. Failure modes of surfacings are often horizontal shear-stress induced rather than vertical load induced; these include bleeding and stripping, particularly in areas of high shear stresses such as rural T-junctions, climbing lanes and braking, accelerating and channelisation movements.

In response to this need, Austroads is sponsoring a Technical Research project AT1540 Understanding the Impact on Pavement Surfaces from Next Generation Freight Vehicles and Developing Practical Network Prediction Models and Responses. The aim of the project is to gain an improved understanding of the failure mechanisms that are particular to the pavement surfacing layer – as distinct from the structural layer – that may be caused by changing configurations and loadings of freight vehicles. Once failure mechanisms are understood, standards, prediction models and appropriate responses need to be developed.

The purpose of this report is to review existing studies and equipment relevant to the measurement of loads and stresses applied to the pavement by the tyres of heavy vehicles and the resulting pavement surface layer wear.