The effects of pavement analysis length on the modeling and variability of pavement condition data

State Highway Authorities collect and store pavement condition data along pavement segment lengths ranging from 0.1 to more than 1 mile (0.16 to 1.61 km). The shorter the pavement segment length, the higher the number of available data points per data collection cycle. The variability of the time series data of a significant number of pavement segments makes it difficult, sometimes impossible, to model the pavement condition data (IRI, rut depth, and cracking). It has been suggested that increasing the pavement length over which the conditions are analyzed may decrease the data variability and improve the ability of the pavement conditions to be modeled over time. This paper presents and discusses the effects of various pavement analysis lengths (0.1 to 1.0 mile or 0.16 to 1.61 km) on the data variability and modeling acceptance criteria. This paper shows that the per centage of pavement segments that can be modeled and analyzed is independent of the analysis length.