IMPACT OF A POTHOLE ON ROAD USER RESPONSE IN TERMS OF DRIVING SAFETY AND COMFORT FOR PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE PRIORITIZATION

Abstract

 In developing countries including Ethiopia, potholes are one of the most serious problems of paved roads, especially after the rainy season. Thus, a criterion that enables road administrators to prioritize the maintenance for pavements with potholes is required in addition to common indices such as the International Roughness Index (IRI). The IRI is used as a standard indicator as it can show the average deviation of a road surface. However, the use of only IRI possibly leads to misinformation when the pavement has been damaged with severe potholes, which causes traffic accidents as well as high user costs. This is due to the conditions of which a pothole develops at some locations of the pavement while no damages are observed in the rest of them. If the condition of potholes is without consideration into IRI-based pavement inspection, it brings inappropriate result and then the road users complain. In the light of this background, this study examines the impact of pothole on road user response in terms of driving safety and comfort for pavement maintenance prioritization. For this purpose, artificial pothole data at different intervals such as 10 m, 20 m, 40 m, and one pothole in a 100 m segment are considered as well as the IRI for the segment. In this study, depths of 25 mm, 50 mm, 75 mm, and 100 mm are simulated for paved roads with two layers of asphalt which is a common case in Addis Ababa City Roads. In addition to the depth and interval, the pothole diameters such as 200 mm, 500 mm, and 750 mm are also involved as a parameter. This study contributes to the establishment of a criterion for pothole conditions that are used in conjunction with the IRI for the prioritization of pavement maintenance, especially in developing countries.