Enhancement of Traffic Control Tool for Reopening of Flooded Roadways

Details

• Creators:
  Preciado, Jaime ; Ali, Fahad ; Lee, Hyung S
• Corporate Creators:
  Applied Research Associates, Inc.
• Corporate Contributors:
  Florida. Department of Transportation. State Materials Office
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Floods
  • Flexible pavements
  • Falling weight deflectometers
  • Fatigue cracking
  • Rutting
  • Embankments
  • Traffic control
  • Roads
  • Decision making
  • Tensile strength
  More +
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Florida
• Edition:
  Final Report: February 2024 to September 2026
• Corporate Publisher:
  Florida Department of Transportation
• Description:
  Flooding can temporarily reduce the structural capacity of flexible pavement due to increased moisture in the unbound pavement layers including the embankment, which may accelerate fatigue cracking and rutting when traffic is restored before the pavement has sufficiently recovered. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has previously developed a procedure to support pavement resiliency and post-flood traffic control decisions; however, additional considerations were needed to better evaluate allowable traffic following flooding events. The primary objective of this research project was to enhance FDOT's traffic control (i.e., decision making) tool for reopening of flooded roadways through the development of a Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD)-based methodology for evaluating flexible pavement structural condition under flooded conditions. The study evaluated relationships between pavement structure, measured FWD deflections, and critical pavement responses including tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layer and compressive stress on top of the embankment. These relationships were incorporated into fatigue and rutting analyses to estimate allowable traffic and support post-flood traffic control decisions. The resulting methodology was implemented into an Excel-based tool that allows the user to import FWD data, estimate critical pavement responses, evaluate fatigue and rutting criteria, and obtain traffic control recommendations based on the estimated roadway traffic and current flood condition. The newly developed procedures and the tool provide FDOT with a practical framework for incorporating pavement structural condition into flooding resiliency assessment and post-flood traffic control decisions.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  BEG81
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/93569/dot_93569_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.48 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:870c914fd02ac650ce2edd0f4a31b50f2417210bc236b072e4c55bc89a1d972cc6e149bee7cb87146fe079d358044a016fe56cd2c2fd3e437b0e035d5e41c111