Use of Rolling Wheel Deflectometer Deflection Data in Pavement Management Systems for Flexible Pavement

This paper proposes a protocol for a new pavement management system (PMS) which uses both the pavement surface distress and deflection indices for the selection of pavement treatments. First, a deflection based PMS is explored and its advantages and limitations discussed. Then, the PMS is combined with pavement surface distress based PMS and the corresponding PMS protocol suggested. This new system can use either pavement surface distress indices as the primary index and deflection index as the second index or vice versa, and will consider both the functional and structural characteristics of asphalt concrete (AC) pavements. The selection of these two types of indices is based on the current knowledge and experience, and their threshold targets can be further modified when more understanding and experience are available. The example of such PMS is demonstrated using the rolling wheel deflectometer (RWD) and current PMS data from District 5 of Louisiana and is recommended for implementation in the district on a trial basis. The new PMS should better reflect the real world situation when recommending the treatments for AC pavement preservation and rehabilitation, but needs more field data to validate and modify. Also, the proposed new PMS and analysis are based on the pavement segment of 0.1 mile as the basic unit and a typical pavement rehabilitation and preservation project will have many pavement segments of 0.1 miles with different structural and surface distress conditions. Therefore, agencies' experience and policies are needed for choosing the representative index values for pavement treatment recommendations. The average SN based approach can also be used as the new PMS can also have a function of estimating pavement SN for a pavement preservation and rehabilitation project.