Evaluation of Pavement Roughness by the International Roughness Index for Sustainable Pavement Construction in New Taipei City

Abstract

Good road quality is an indicator of urban progress. In August 1998, the New Taipei City government implemented the “Road Leveling Project” on roads within its jurisdiction to improve the quality of public transportation. This paper aimed to analyze the International Roughness Index (IRI) of 152 asphalt concrete pavement sections in New Taipei City before and after road leveling. An intelligent pavement inspection vehicle that met the requirements of E 950 Class I was used to detect the IRI values of the road sections before and after maintenance. The statistical analysis showed that the implementation of the Road Leveling Project had a significant effect on improving the road roughness of roads under its jurisdiction. Moreover, it became possible to arrange a budget for roads with IRI values above a threshold or to estimate the budget needed to improve roads with an IRI higher than a certain value.