Cost of Pavement Damage Due to Heavier Loads on Louisiana Highways: Preliminary Assessment

Abstract

A preliminary assessment is made of the impact of increasing the gross vehicle weight (GVW) from current legal limits to 100,000 lb (45 400 kg) on vehicles hauling sugarcane, rice, timber, and cotton. Sections of road were chosen in each area of Louisiana where commodities are produced, the amount of each commodity hauled was estimated, and the effects of increasing the GVW were evaluated for each section using pavement design models. Design data were secured from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development computer database and project files to determine the pavement design parameters and traffic estimates for each road. The number of vehicles hauling the 1998 harvest payload was estimated, a projected increase in the production of each commodity was estimated on the basis of government statistics, and rehabilitations were designed with the use of the 1986 AASHTO Design Guide for a 20-year analysis period. Present worth (PW) was calculated for each GVW scenario for each roadway. Comparisons of PW between the weight scenarios showed that increases in GVW have more effect on state and U.S. highways than they do on Interstate highways. Any increase in GVW over current limits increases the cost of overlays and decreases the length of time before an overlay is required. The cost increase due to increasing the GVW is substantial. Fee structures should be modified by the legislature so that these costs are paid for either through the current registration and overweight permit fee structure or through some new tax, such as a ton-mile tax.

Extended Weight Systems Pavement Analysis

“…In 1998, Louisiana assessed increasing GVW to 100,000 lb on trucks carrying sugarcane, rice, timber, and cotton. The state identified road segments along which each commodity was produced, the number of trucks carrying each load, estimated the amount of each commodity hauled, and the potential effect of increasing the weight on those road segments over a 20-year period ( 11 ). Overall, increasing the GVW decreased the service life of roads, increased the cost of pavement overlays, and reduced the time between required overlays.…”

Development of an overweight vehicle permit fee structure for Illinois

“…However, because the result was based on selected commercial industries, it was not applicable to general cases. Roberts and Djakfar (1999) conducted a preliminary assessment of impacts of increasing the GVW from the existing legal limit to 100 kips on trucks hauling sugarcane, rice, timber, and cotton. Issued by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, the agronomic/ horticultural permit, the cotton module permit, and the harvest season or natural forest products permit were included in the study.…”

“…Researchers found that smaller impacts resulted from increasing vehicle's GVW if the pavement was designed to haul a larger number of ESALs. Roberts and Djakfar (1999 Luskin et al (2002) discussed the economic inefficiency of the fee structure for HB 2060 permits, which are the annual divisible-load permits legislated by the Texas government in 1989 for trucks to operate above the general weight limits. Owing to the lack of detailed data on travel information, extreme-case scenarios for pavement damage (i.e., the worst-case scenarios and the best-case scenarios) were confined in the analysis.…”

Are Longer and Heavier Vehicles (LHVs) Beneficial for Society? A Cost Benefit Analysis to Evaluate their Potential Implementation in Spain

“…Fortowsky and Humphreys (2006) discovered important savings to the cost of resurfacing the pavement if higher limits of 45 tonnes (or 40 tonnes to special commodities) were allowed along the whole length of Maine's I-95, principally due to the decrease in the diversion of heavy trucks onto state roads. In this same vein, Roberts and Djakfar (2000) pointed out that the design of the pavement is very important in determining the additional cost for allowing heavier trucks. For the Belgian case, Debauche and Decock (2007) demonstrated that depending on the precise LHV configuration, the effects on the infrastructure could vary considerably.…”