How Pavements Fail - Part 2
Posted by Jesse Willoughby on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 @ 06:35 AM
Increased Loads Accelerate Pavement FailureThe loads imposed by vehicles on parking lots, loading docks, and streets have increased historically both in magnitude and frequency. Weight limits for trucks were increased in the 1980s. Industry efficiencies have
led to an increase in the size of trucks. Truck size and weights have increased as a consequence. With more online shopping and ecommerce comes a rapid increas in trucks and delivery. Freight tonnage in the San Francisco Metro Area is estimated to double by 2030; 72% of this will be carried on trucks, up from 63% today. The region's travel forecast model estimates that between 2000 and 2020, the number of medium and heavy truck trips nearly double. The Port of Oakland is the hub of freight activity for the Bay Area. Arterial streets and parking lots that serve the Bay Area's industrial areas have the highest volume of medium and heavy truck trips today and in the future. Bay Area surface streets carry much of the truck freight that access Port facilities and truck freight terminals. Buses have increased in size and weight in the past two decades and bus trips are also growing at a pace that equals or exceeds the rate of growth in travel demand.
The sum result of these factors is an increased load demand on key freight routes and transit corridors and
accelerated pavement failure. Streets are failing at a faster rate than they did in the past and the requirements for pavement maintenance continues to increase. These trends are being felt world wide and
are due to just-in-time manufacturing, disinvestment in rail and other surface transportation modes. The
factors that influence pavement failure are well documented and need to be recognized in strategies to
address pavement management.
If companies and organizations wait too long to maintain asphalt pavement surfaces, it will cost 2X or 3X more to rehabilitate and reconstruct in the immediate future.