Highway Pavement Damage and Cost Due to Routine Permitted Axles

Routine permitting of overloaded trucks and axles is a common practice within the U.S. These permits only require the filing of paperwork and the payment of a fee without any further infrastructure damage evaluation. As cited in the literature, the fees are based primarily on administrative fees rather than costs associated with more rapid deterioration of the highway infrastructure. This investigation evaluated the impact of routine permitting on flexible and rigid pavement deterioration using the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). Life cycle cost analyses were also conducted to estimate increased pavement costs due to permitting of heavier loads. Similar trends were noted between both flexible and rigid pavement analyses. Namely, the predicted reduction in pavement life as a function of the volume of permitted axles can be modeled well as a negative exponential relationship. There was a corresponding exponential increase in life cycle cost from increases in permitted axle volume.