Jessica Mehr

In the wake of increased user demand, aging infrastructure, and limited funding, transportation agencies must choose improvements carefully and leverage existing resources to the fullest.  This extends to the collection of traffic data such as roadway usage.  To forecast infrastructure health, state departments of transportation typically employ expensive vehicle classification stations to monitor usage.  The simplest in-pavement detector station can cost in excess of $100,000, not including the cost of delay to travelers arising from lane closures.  More sophisticated Weigh in Motion (WIM) stations are much more expensive. 

This research continues a previous NEXTRANS grant to develop innovative, cost-effective vehicle classification systems.  This project has two aims: using the existing infrastructure more efficiently, and investigating alternatives to conventional classification.    

As our nation settles into a deep economic crisis, it is more important than ever that transportation agencies use their funding resources wisely.  This poses a particular challenge in terms of pavement maintenance, since all pavements inevitably deteriorate over time.  Typically, this deterioration occurs at an ever-increasing rate:  small distresses develop, making the pavement much more susceptible to larger distresses.  This means correcting small pavement defects not only makes the road condition immediately better, but also slows the rate of pavement deterioration by correcting these defects before they can develop into costlier problems. 

Because of this, pavement maintenance and rehabilitation are crucial to keeping transportation infrastructure safe and cost-effective. In order to determine where and when to perform this crucial maintenance, State Highway Agencies must first accurately evaluate the structural condition of in-service pavements, preferably through methods that do not damage the road (nondestructive testing).