Assessment of an incentive-only ride specification for asphalt pavements.

Details

• Creators:
  Nair, Harikrishnan ; McGhee, Kevin K. ; Habib, Affan ; Shetty, Sameer
• Corporate Creators:
  Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research
• Corporate Contributors:
  Virginia. Dept. of Transportation
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Asphalt pavements
  • Smoothness
  • Ride quality
  • Paving
  • Specifications
  • Quality assurance
  • Contractors
  • Incentives
• Publication/ Report Number:
  VCTIR 16-R2
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Virginia
• Corporate Publisher:
  Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research
• Abstract:
  Smoothness specifications are applied by almost all state transportation agencies, including the Virginia Department of ; Transportation (VDOT), to promote the overall quality and optimum ride quality of pavements. VDOT has a ride specification ; that provides a pay adjustment (either incentive or disincentive) depending on the smoothness of the final paved surface. ; VDOT’s ride specification also has a provision to waive the disincentive and apply the incentive part only to projects where ; project geometry, etc., is perceived to make it difficult for the contractor to achieve the desired ride. When applied, the waiver is ; intended to encourage the contractor to apply additional efforts to improve the ride for otherwise difficult projects. ; In late 2011, VDOT’s executive leadership formed an Asphalt Quality Task Force to identify and recommend specific ; achievable measures to improve the quality of the asphalt paving in Virginia. The task force agreed to consider the proposal to ; make an incentive-only provision the default for projects that would otherwise not qualify for the regular ride specification ; application. This study documented and critically reviewed the pilot application of the incentive-only provision for rideability on ; selected asphalt resurfacing schedules for VDOT’s 2013 construction season. Several lane-miles of control sites were compared ; with the “incentive-only” sites to determine if the prospects of added incentives led contractors to alter their paving procedures in ; pursuit of a higher quality ride. ; There was no statistically reliable distinction between the achieved quality of the incentive-only and control sites. Further, ; it was found that the originally proposed incentive-only provisions did not provide any meaningful benefit to VDOT or ; contractors. The study developed a revised incentive-only specification and further recommended that the proposed provision be ; applied to a wider range of projects in VDOT’s 2015 construction season.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/29393/dot_29393_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.29 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:fdab594c0f4cc09f04eb78d62a8fc1fd64fb333d98463ae5fae0bd41bb983053