Assessing Issues, Technologies, and Data Needs to Meet Traffic Input Requirements by Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide

Abstract

As part of the implementation initiatives undertaken by the Indiana Department of Transportation Research Division, this paper presents the effort made to identify potential issues arising from traffic data processing and to assess technologies and data needs to meet the requirements of traffic design inputs in the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide. Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) and geographical information system (GIS) technologies were proposed to manage weigh-in-motion (WIM) and automatic vehicle classification site information and manipulate the traffic design input database. Computer programs were developed to process the raw data ASCII files generated from a WIM vendor's software. A platform was developed to combine GPS coordinates, GIS base maps, data processing programs, and the traffic database into an integral unit. Three WIM sites were selected for trial study. It was demonstrated that, with this platform, the WIM sites and database can be accessed visually and more efficiently. In addition, the computer programs can save significant data processing time. Other issues, such as the possible effect of unclassified vehicle count, were identified. On the basis of findings from the implementation initiatives, necessary efforts and future implementation activities are outlined.