2012 - USA - Assessing Highway Infrastructure Health

This report documents the results of a pilot study conducted as part of a project on improving FHWA’s ability to assess highway infrastructure health. As part of the pilot study, a section of Interstate 90 through South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin was evaluated in order to 1) test approaches for categorizing bridge and pavement condition as good/fair/poor that potentially could be used across the country, and 2) provide a proof of concept for a methodology to assess and communicate the overall health of a corridor with respect to bridges and pavements. As a result of the pilot study, it was found that a bridge good/fair/poor methodology can be implemented nationwide today. For pavements, the International Roughness Index can be used today to classify pavement ride quality nationwide. However, additional investigation of other pavement condition metrics is necessary prior to implementation of a holistic pavement indicator that includes distress and structural condition. Also, a conceptual condition and health reporting tool was developed and is presented in the report.