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Research Report 279 Effect on pavement wear of increased mass limits for heavy vehicles – stage 3

Published: | Category: Activity management , CAPTIF , Research programme , Research & reports | Audience: General

To improve the efficiency of the road transport industry, a range of mass limit increases for heavy vehicles has been proposed. Some of the options for mass increases include increasing the axle load limit, which would inevitably lead to increased road wear. New Zealand has a mass-distance road user charging (RUC) regime where the users pay for the road wear they generate, and therefore there is a need to accurately reflect the wear.

Stage 3 of this study, carried out in 2002, aimed to accurately predict road wear from various levels of loading, an accelerated loading test was undertaken at the Canterbury Accelerated Pavement Testing Indoor Facility (CAPTIF) to compare the wear generated by different levels of loading.

Accelerated pavement test report series

Research Report 207 Effect on pavement wear of an increase in mass limits for heavy vehicles

  • Investigates the effect of increase in mass limits on pavement life on four sections that differed only by aggregate type.

Research Report 231 Increase in mass limits effect on pavement wear – stage 2

  • Investigates the effect of increase in mass limits on the life of a chipseal surfacing.

Research Report 279 Effect on pavement wear of increased mass limits for heavy vehicles – stage 3 (report on this page)

  • Aims to accurately predict road wear from various levels of loading.

Research Report 280 Effect on pavement wear of increased mass limits for heavy vehicles – stage 4

  • Assesses the effects on pavement and surfacing life, should an increase in mass limits for heavy vehicles be allowed. 

Research Report 281 Effect on pavement wear of increased mass limits for heavy vehicles – concluding report

  • Represents the analysis of results of the study.

Keywords: accelerated pavement testing, CAPTIF, heavy vehicles, loads, loading, mass limits, pavement, pavement loading, pavement performance, pavement wear, roads, road user charges, surface texture, thin-surfaced pavements, traffic, vehicles

Publication details

  • Author:
  • Published: 2005
  • Reference: 279
  • ISBN/ISSN: ISBN 0-478-25390-7 ISSN 1177-0600