Heavy vehicle overloading in less developed countries: implications and considerations

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Heavy vehicle overloading in less developed countries: implications and considerations

Fekpe, Edward S. K. / Oduro‐Konadu, Eric

The effect of the high level of heavy vehicle overloading on the deterioration of aged and weak pavements and the impact on road maintenance planning policies in less developed countries are addressed.

Heavy vehicle overloading is severe and variable. A severity index (SI) parameter is introduced to provide a single measure of the combined effects of overloading and violation rates and can be directly linked with the rate of deterioration. The index provides a convenient means of assessing the impacts of different loading patterns of trucks and alternative weight enforcement strategies. A severity index above 0.1 is considered to be undesirable. The use of separate truck load factors for different road systems more appropriately represents the loading pattern than single values for all road systems.

High incidence of overloading increases roughness, vehicle operating costs and hence higher maintenance and rehabilitation costs due to premature failures. Present maintenance and rehabilitation planning tools and procedures (e.g. HDM‐III) ignore the effect of overloading in evaluating alternative strategies. Maintenance options so selected are most likely to experience rapid deteriorations from traffic effects assuming all other things being equal. The need to have realistic VWD regulations and stringent enforcement of weight enforcement programmes is thus considered an essential step towards achieving cost‐effectiveness in road maintenance efforts.