This report compares the wet-pavement accident frequency and the skid resistance of ground PCC pavement to that of standard texture PCC pavement as a function of cumulative heavy truck equivalent axle load passes.

This report from the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2), which is administered by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, documents the evaluation and demonstration of real-time smoothness measuring technologies on Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements during construction. The research in this report will improve process control and allow for two technologies, the GOMACO Smoothness Indicator and the Ames Engineering Real Time Profiler, which were both tested in the field on actual paving projects in Arkansas, Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and New York.

Long-term prediction of the performance and durability of pavement represents a critical and vital issue in the pavement surface type selection process by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) using the life-cycle-cost analysis. Accurate prediction of roughness progression on Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements is very important since the current model used by KDOT is based on the pavement serviceability guidelines (1993 AASHTO Design Guide). In this study, dynamic Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and statistical analysis approaches were used to develop reliable and accurate time-dependent roughness (International Roughness Index, IRI) prediction models for the newly constructed Kansas Jointed Plain Concrete Pavements (JPCP). To achieve this objective, data used in the model development process include construction and materials data as well as other inventory items, such as, traffic and climatic related data, which reflect the section-specific local conditions in Kansas.

"This paper discusses the influence of roadway surface textures on the skid resistance, the speed-gradient, the wet-pavement accident rate, pavement wear, and the generation of tire-road interaction noise. The tendency of a vehicle to hydroplane is reduced by increasing the texture magnitude. Appropriate textures are developed by using open-graded asphalt friction surface courses and by grooving portland cement concrete with steel tines or a vibrating float while the concrete is plastic. Hardened pavements can be textured by grooving with a diamond saw or by resurfacing with an overlay. More development is needed in texture measurement techniques, especially in automating the stereo-photo interpretation method and the linear polarized laser technique"--Technical report documentation page