ABSTRACT
Thailand is today characterised by exceptionally rapid economic development, which has brought with it major road infrastructure problems. In order to address these problems, the Department of Highways (DOH) of Thailand has commenced a long-term technical assistance project, with assistance from the Danish Road Directorate (DRD). The project, for the evaluation of the condition of asphaltic pavements, will lead to full implementation of Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) Technology and the development and implementation of Analytical Pavement Design in Thailand. The project is currently underway and will span a three-year period from 1999 to 2001. The Department of Highways is responsible for monitoring the condition of the nation’s road network of approximately 60,000 km. One technical issue to be overcome is that for more than 25 years, the strength of existing asphaltic pavement structures and overlay design has been based on Benkelman Beam testing, which is no longer suitable for the heavily trafficked major highways of Thailand. A second issue is that since the traffic volumes and the gross vehicle weights of heavy transport vehicles on many major roads in Thailand now exceed the limits of the current national asphalt pavement design method, a new analytical design method suited to the climatic and traffic conditions in Thailand is urgently required. The overall objectives of the Project are: to increase the efficiency of pavement evaluation measurement; to extend pavement evaluation measurements to heavily trafficked highways; to reduce pavement maintenance costs; to reduce manpower required for pavement evaluation measurements; to improve the safety of the technical staff of the pavement measurement teams; to develop an analytical pavement design for overlays and new roads; to control the development of longitudinal roughness; to introduce advanced modern technologies into management of the road sector in Thailand; and to research and publish reports that will form the basis for the future design and maintenance of the national road network. This paper briefly describes the project, its objectives and deliverables.
