Project Scoping Using Falling Weight Deflectometer Testing: New Jersey Experience

Abstract

The experience of New Jersey with pavements, like that of many other states, goes back to the last century. Highways constructed early in this century are still in service. During these extensive service lives, several maintenance and rehabilitation activities were applied to keep the pavements in good condition. These activities ranged from patching to full reconstruction. Also, most of New Jersey pavements have been widened at least once. With all these factors, it is difficult to identify the limits of homogeneous sections that should receive the same rehabilitation treatment. In 1996, the New Jersey Department of Transportation started a limited network level falling weight deflectometer (FWD) program. This program has short- and long-term goals. The short-term goals include identifying the limits of homogeneous sections (sectionalization), assessing the pavement structural capacity, estimating the remaining service life, and determining the future rehabilitation needs. The long-term goal of the project is to use the FWD measurements for the ongoing development and refinement of the models used to predict remaining structural life for use in economic evaluation models. The procedure followed to achieve the short-term goals of the project and an outline of the findings of the project are summarized.