Investigation of Skid Resistance of Hot-Mix-Asphalt-Surfaced Pavements in Maryland State Highway Network System

Skid resistance is a major concern of pavement maintenance in the sense of highway safety. Therefore, it is very important for a pavement maintenance decision-maker to quantitatively evaluate those factors that affect pavement surfaces frictional characteristics. In this paper, authors conducted extensive statistical analysis on the data from the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) Pavement Management System (PMS) to investigate the possible correlations between skid resistance indicator (friction number) and influential factors for Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) surfaced pavements, which account for 98% of the MDSHA network. The factors considered include pavement surface age, pavement location (urban or rural), traffic intensity, aggregate properties, application of slurry seal treatments and climate-related factors such as temperature and rainfall. Regression analysis was used to quantify the significance of these factors. Particularly, the difference of friction between urban roads and rural roads reveals that traffic fashion (speed, stopping frequency and etc.) plays a more important role than traffic intensity in the polishing of surfaces. It is also found that the network average friction would be influenced by the average daily temperature and rainfall. This paper also discussed the implication and potential uses of these findings. The results presented in this paper would be useful for pavement skid resistance evaluation and improvement in pavement maintenance practices.