Pavement engineering is a branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to design and maintain flexible ( asphalt) and rigid ( concrete) pavements. This includes streets and highways and involves knowledge of soils, hydraulics, and material properties. Pavement engineering involves new construction as well as rehabilitation and maintenance of existing pavements. ^[1]

Maintenance often involves using engineering judgment to make maintenance repairs with the highest long-term benefit and lowest cost. The Pavement Condition Index (PCI) is an example of an engineering approach applied to existing pavements. Another example is the use of a falling weight deflectometer (FWD) to non-destructively test existing pavements. Calculation of pavement layer strengths can be performed from the resulting deflection data. The two methods - empirical or mechanistic is used to determine pavement layer thicknesses. ^{[2] [3]}

Evaluation of pavement

The evaluation of existing road pavements is done based on 3 factors

• Functional surface condition: where all the distresses such as cracks, potholes, rutting and others are analyzed.
• Structural condition: which analyzes pavement's structural strength to take loading from trucks.
• Roughness: using parameters such as the International Roughness Index to evaluate comfort for drivers.

See also

• Transportation engineering
• Highway engineering
• NCAT Pavement Test Track

References

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