DTC Civil Transportation engineering instructor, Dr. Daniel Findley, recently co-authored a journal article in the Construction and Building Materials Journal that explores methods to predict pavement quality. Specifically, the research predicts the available minimum skid resistance in the road network of Biscay (Spain) with data collected in the summer season when friction values are at a minimum.
Firstly, it was observed that the pavement structure does not influence skid resistance. Therefore, roadway segments with available data about the surface layer of single or double carriageway roads were analyzed.
Two models were developed: 1) short model with only the surface material, average annual daily traffic, and the number of lanes (no pavement history required) and 2) a long model which adds the required Polished Stone Value to improve the prediction. These models can help road agencies to identify the roads where lower skid resistance values are more probable to be obtained to focus their attention and efforts.
