SPR 22-627, Forensic Analysis of Pavements Prior to Rehabilitation Decisions

Pavement rehabilitation and maintenance has become a major part of highway agency programs. There are numerous strategies by which pavement can be rehabbed. However, which is the best and most effective strategy, for a particular pavement or project? When is it appropriate to conduct a pavement forensic analysis? Should there be uniform procedures or protocols that are to be followed in each analysis? Providing an answer to these questions should provide a cost and time savings to the highway agency while providing better rehabilitation designs. OBJECTIVES To determine best practices or when and why to conduct a forensic analysis of a pavement structure prior to rehabilitation. WORKPLAN Task 1: Literature review of other states best practices for pavement forensic analysis. Task 2: Review the type of field tests performed, the frequency of tests, the warrants for these tests, how the data are analyzed and other pertinent issues that would need to be performed in a forensic analysis. Task 3: From TASKS 1 and 2, the current state of practice in Kentucky will be delineated and modelled by the creation of flow charts and/or decision trees. Task 4: From the previous tasks, a full description will be given of the current procedures and the state-of-practice in Kentucky for forensic pavement analysis. This task will also include the development of a manual describing the protocols that are to be followed in each analysis? Providing an answer to these questions should provide a cost and time savings to the highway agency while providing better rehabilitation designs.