Comparación y análisis de las metodologías para la calificación y cuantificación de daños en pavimentos asfálticos

Abstract

Pavement evaluation methodologies are used as a technical, objective, systematic and reproducible tool to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of road rehabilitation and improvement works, used throughout the world to collect and analyze information on the state of the roads. roads.

Evaluations that include diagnoses, both of the structural capacity of the roads, as well as of their functional capacity in terms of comfort and cost of operation of the vehicles, as well as elements of geometric design, road safety and their surface condition which allows to have a comprehensive approach to the various problems associated with road infrastructure.

The results obtained constitute a guide so that those who administer the road assets can technically determine the intervention policies and strategies, both at the road network level, and at the level of specific projects and thus achieve that these practices lead to efficient and effective investments of limited public funds.

There are several methodologies or manuals for the evaluation of the conditions of asphalt pavements, which differ in definitions and rating systems; For the development of this work, field activities related to the application of different forms of qualification of the condition of asphalt pavements were carried out, comparing the results of the surface evaluation of the chosen sector, using the VIZIR, PCR and PCI methodologies.

The Instituto Nacional de Vías - INVÍAS, in charge of managing the national road network, adopted in 2002 the French VIZIR methodology for the inventory of damage to the asphalt paved roads of the network under its charge, and based on this methodology it structured the contracts comprehensive maintenance; Additionally, the National Institute of Concessions INCO in the studies contracted to establish the technical annexes of the Ruta del Sol concession project carried out by the firm Euroestudios for the IFC International Finance Corporation used the aforementioned methodology.

The Ministry of Transport - Regional Road Plan in 2008 developed a project for the survey of road inventories in the secondary network and part of the tertiary of the departments; In the specifications it established that to determine the surface condition of the roads that are with asphalt or concrete pavement, the pavement condition index (PCI) should be calculated following the guidelines given in the document “PAVEMENT CONDITION INDEX (PCI) FOR ASPHALTIC AND CONCRETE PAVEMENTS ON HIGHWAYS ”, prepared by ING. ESP. LUIS RICARDO VÁSQUEZ VARELA.

From the above, the question arises: What is the most appropriate methodology to evaluate the state of damage and condition indices in asphalt pavements on Colombian roads?

The results obtained by the territorial entities have not been compared with the application of other methodologies (PCR, PCI), becoming an incentive for this work, in order to propose through it for government entities, the methodology closest to the needs of the road network in charge of the evaluations and recommendations that really reflect the condition of the damage and condition indices in asphalt pavements.

Situation that will allow to have a useful tool that standardizes the activities of inspection of the deterioration of the asphalt pavements, at the same time having instructions with which the characterization and evaluation of deterioration, obtaining the necessary information for the design of the interventions required by the road considering that:

1. Provide qualitative information to determine the possible causes of deterioration in asphalt pavements and the development of appropriate strategies to repair defects and prevent their recurrence.

2. Evaluate the progression of the damage, the consequences of delaying your intervention, and the cost of the different rehabilitation strategies.

3. Allow uniform spans for the design to be zoned. For the preparation of this document, various experiences obtained in local practice have been taken into account, as well as from recognized agencies in other countries such as Mexico and Costa Rica, from which it is determined that the visual assessment of the deterioration of the pavement does not it constitutes a sufficient criterion to define the actions that a road requires for its rehabilitation.

From the above, a study of these should be complemented with the following information:

• Analysis of the results of the International Roughness Index (IRI).

• Evaluation for each of the study sectors of the mechanical capacity of the pavement structure through deflectometric analysis of representative subsectors and the physical-mechanical characterization of the granular layers and the subgrade, to fulfill this purpose, the information will be evaluated taken in the field, as well as that obtained in previous studies.