01553502

Component

Overweight trucks may cause major damage to the ageing highway network. Assessing the cost of damage caused by overweight trucks and allocating the cost to different categories of trucks will help in optimizing the use of the limited funds available for rehabilitating and replacing the large number of deteriorated bridges and in properly managing the issuance of overweight permits and allocating appropriate resources to enforce existing legal load limits and reducing the number of illegally overweight trucks. This paper is for an independent undergraduate research study. The object of this study is to obtain estimates of the cost effect of overweight trucks on New York state bridges and to compare the costs from overweight permit trucks to those of illegally overweight trucks. Because different types of bridges may behave differently under the effect of heavy trucks, New York bridges were classified into specific categories based on their material (concrete or steel), superstructure type (box, I-girder, etc.) and span length. The summary of the classification indicated that 15275 bridges or 77% of all bridges in New York State’s bridge database were subjected to heavy truck loads. Of these bridges, fifteen significant categories were determined to be most dominant, based on their preponderance in the inventory. The cost to replace bridges whose damage exceed the allowable limits were obtained from previously developed bridge cost models based on superstructure type and geometry. Using a sample of 23 bridges it is possible that the cost of damage to New York State bridges due to overweight trucks may reach over $642 million per year.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHD37 Bridge Preservation. Alternate title: Effects of Overweight Vehicles on NYSDOT Infrastructure.

01550057

15-5486

English

15p

2015

Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Cost allocation; Costs; Data analysis; Deterioration; Heavy duty trucks; Highway bridges; Overweight loads; Truck traffic

New York (State)

Bridges and other structures; Finance; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Motor Carriers; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2015 Paper #15-5486

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 30 2014 1:51PM