Sustainable mobility for heavy freight vehicles

Mobilisation of heavy freight vehicles in a sustainable manner requires providing accessibility and a well-defined, safe and smooth road network that allows short travel times to minimise the carbon foot print of heavy transport system. Road surface roughness affects the comfort of the driver and increases user costs in terms of vehicle operating costs and travel time. Achieving a smooth road network requires adopting appropriate maintenance and rehabilitation strategies. The latter requires the use of appropriate intervention criteria in terms of intervention measures and treatments. This paper describes the development and validation of a profile-based roughness measure referred to as the Heavy Articulated Truck Index (HATI). HATI can be used to identify road sections providing poor ride quality for heavy transport operators. The effectiveness of HATI as a measure of pavement damage due to dynamic wheel loads is also investigated. Adopting HATI and the other diagnostic measures proposed herein help road authorities implement appropriate maintenance strategies to ensure the sustainability of their pavement assets and reduce emissions generated by heavy and light vehicles, in addition to providing acceptable level of service to all road users.