In 1989 the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) added a policy to their smoothness specification that enables payments made to paving contractors to be based on the level of smoothness. The contractor can receive a 5% bonus for above average or a 5% penalty for below average smoothness readings. The measurement of smoothness has been based on the manual extraction of data from profilograph traces based on a 0.2 blanking band and resolution of 0.05. ALDOT has determined that more than three-quarters of all the 0.1 mile segments tested since the implementation of the specification have fallen in the 5% bonus range without an improvement in pavement ride quality. This observation resulted in the decision to conduct a study to determine; 1) if the ProScanTM hardware and software could be used to provide a reliable method of reducing profilograph traces, and 2) to investigate the feasibility and consequences of different smoothness pay factors. The results of the study support the ProScanTM system as a quick, accurate, and replicable method of reducing the profilographs. In addition, it was concluded that ALDOT should change the blanking band to a width of 0.0 and should adopt a combined step and continuous function method of determining incentive pay factors. With these pay factors in place ALDOT would have paid only 96.8% of the bid price for paving projects that brought 102% pay under the old step-wise function.

This publication contains papers presented at a December 2001 symposium, focusing on hot mix asphalt (HMA) smoothness measurements, specifications, and equipment. Five papers provide insight into the development and implementation of roughness specifications for pavements, and two papers offer natio

Design related project level pavement management - Economic evaluation of alternative pavement design strategies - Reliability / - Pavement design procedures for new construction or reconstruction : Design requirements - Highway pavement structural design - Low-volume road design / - Pavement design procedures for rehabilitation of existing pavements : Rehabilitation concepts - Guides for field data collection - Rehabilitation methods other than overlay - Rehabilitation methods with overlays / - Mechanistic-empirical design procedures.

This report contains guidelines and recommendations for managing and designing for friction on highway pavements. The contents of this report will be of interest to highway materials, construction, pavement management, safety, design, and research engineers, as well as others concerned with the friction and related surface characteristics of highway pavements.