Triple trailer flexible pavement impacts on selected Texas corridors

Longer combination vehicles (LCV's) are characterized as trucks with two or more large cargo Trailers. A number of states in the US have benefitted economically by allowing operation of LCV's over the interstate highway network. Aside from the productivity gains achieved through the operations of LCV's, significant advantages have been demonstrated in the areas of pavement damage when axle loads are kept under control. Presently State of Texas is considering the implementation of various sizes and types of LCV's to operate in conjunction or substituting the existing fleet of Class 9 vehicles over interstate highway network. This thesis will provide a comprehensive evaluation of the pavement impacts on selected highway corridors in Texas of the introduction of one of the LCV types, a Triple 28 ft trailer configuration.

In these selected highway corridors, the proposed triple trailer will replace different percentiles of regular class9 (18-wheelers) in a sensitivity analysis of the pavement impacts. Stresses and strains induced in pavements in these selected corridors are analyzed by using a Mechanistic. Empirical (ME) approach to determine the pavement impacts in terms of pavement life. Furthermore, a pavement cost analysis of LCV operations on these selected Texas highway corridor is presented.