PAVEMENT CONDITION INDEX METHOD

compiled by Basil David Daniel

Main Reference: M.Y. Shahin, Pavement Management for Airports, Roads and Parking Lots, Springer, New York, 2005

Pavement Condition Index (PCI) Method

Background The Pavement Condition Index (PCI) method is used to obtain a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) value for pavements through a visual survey of the pavement. The Pavement Condition Index (PCI) is a numerical rating of the pavement condition that ranges from 0 to 100 (refer to Figure 1), with 0 being the worst possible condition and 100 being the best possible condition. The Pavement Condition Index (PCI) method was developed by the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This method can be used on both asphalt surfaced as well as jointed portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements.

Figure 1: Pavement Condition Index (PCI) Rating Scale and the corresponding Level of Service and Maintenance Activity

Performing a Pavement Condition Survey on Asphalt Surfaced Pavements Equipment: Inspectors need a hand odometer or measuring tape to measure distress lengths and areas, a straight edge, a ruler to measure the depth of ruts or depressions, and the PCI distress manual (to assist in identifying distresses and determining their severity levels). Procedure: A sample unit is inspected by measuring the distress type and severity according to the PCI distress manual, and recording the data on the flexible pavement survey sheet (as shown in Figure 2). One data sheet is used for each sample unit.

Figure 2: Pavement Condition Survey Sheet

Dividing a Pavement Section Into Sample Units A sample unit is defined as the portion of pavement section designated only for the purpose of pavement inspection. Figure 3 shows an example of sample units. Pavement Section 6.5 m x 780 m

1
100 m

2
100 m

3
100 m

4
100 m

5
100 m

6
100 m

7
100 m

8
80 m

Figure 3: Example of a pavement section divided into sample units

The number of sample units in a pavement section to be inspected can be determined using Figure 4. When performing initial inspection, the PCI standard deviation for asphalt concrete is assumed to be 10.

Figure 4: Selection of the minimum number of sample units

It is recommended that the sample units to be inspected be spaced equally throughout the section, and that the first one be chosen at random (this technique is known as systematic random). Sampling interval is determined using the following equation: Interval, i =
N n

where N = total number of sample units in section n = minimum number of sample units to be inspected

The sampling interval is rounded off to the smaller whole number (e.g. 3.6 is rounded to 3).

Example: If N = 20, n = 9 (determined from Figure 4) Interval, i = 20/9 = 2.2 2.0 Hence sample units to be inspected are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 (as indicated in Figure 5).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Figure 5: Sampling interval

Example The table below shows a pavement condition survey for sample unit 07, section JPB-KM2 of Jalan Parit Botak. Determine the Pavement Condition Index for this sample unit.
JALAN PARIT BOTAK (ASPHALT SURFACED ROAD) CONDITION SURVEY DATA SHEET
BRANCH: TRAFFIC LABORATORY UTHM DATE: 25 AUGUST 2007 SURVEYED BY: BDD SAMPLE UNIT: 07 SECTION: JPB-KM2 SAMPLE AREA: 6 m x 100 m 01. Alligator Cracking (m2) 06. Depression (m2) 11. Patching & Utility 02. Bleeding (m2) 07. Edge Cracking (m) Cut Patching ((m2) 2 03. Block Cracking (m ) 08. Joint Reflection 12. Polished 04. Bumps and Sags (m) Cracking (m) Aggregate (m2) 2 05. Corrugation (m ) 09. Lane/Shoulder Drop 13. Potholes (no.) 14. Railroad Crossing Off (m) 10. Longitudinal & (m2) 15. Rutting (m2) Transverse Cracking (m) DISTRESS QUANTITY TOTAL SURVEY

16. Shoving (m2) 17. Slippage Cracking (m2) 18. Swell (m2) 19. Weathering/ Ravelling (m2)

DENSITY %

DEDUCT VALUE

03 M 01 L 01 H 11 M 13 M 10 L 10 M

7.8 2.5 6.3 3.1 0.5 0.8 0.7

4.1 4.2 1.8

0.4 0.8 1.2 1.1 0.3 0.4 0.5

Solution: (1) Determine the Distress Density and Deduct Value

QUANTITY TOTAL DENSITY % DEDUCT VALUE

DISTRESS SURVEY

03 M 01 L 01 H 11 M 13 M 10 L 10 M

7.8 2.5 6.3 3.1 0.5 0.8 0.7

4.1 4.2 1.8

11.9 8.5 6.3

0.4 0.8 1.2 1.1 0.3 0.4 0.5

3.5 1.3 2.8 2.2

100*(11.9/600) = 1.98 100*(8.5/600) = 1.42 100*(6.3/600) = 1.05 100*(3.5/600) = 0.58 100*(1.3/600) = 0.22 100*(2.8/100) = 2.80 100*(2.2/100) = 2.20

6 13 32 7 50 2 6

(2)

Maximum allowable number of deducts, m

Highest deduct value, HDV = 50 m = 1 + (9/98)(100 HDV) = 1 + (9/98)(100 50) = 5.6 Deduct values in descending order: 50, 32, 13, 7, 6, 6, 2 Number of deduct values = 7 Since the maximum allowable number of deducts is 5.6, therefore only the first 5 and 0.6 of the 6th deduct value are selected, i.e. 50, 32, 13, 7, 6, and 0.6*6 = 3.6.

(3)

Maximum corrected deduct value, CDV

Number of deduct values greater than 2, q = 6 Total deduct value = 50 + 32 + 13 + 7 + 6 + 3.6 = 111.6 From Figure B-45, CDV = 58 Reduce the smallest individual deduct value to 2 (q is now 5) and determine the CDV. Repeat until q reaches 1.

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 50 50 50 50 50 50 32 32 32 32 32 2

Deduct Values 13 13 13 13 2 2 7 7 7 2 2 2 6 6 2 2 2 2 3.6 2 2 2 2 2

Total 111.6 110 106 101 90 60

q 6 5 4 3 2 1

CDV 58 58 61 65 63 60

Maximum CDV = 65

(4)

Determine the Pavement Condition Index

PCI = 100 CDVmax = 100 65 = 35 Based on the rating for PCI value of 35, this section of pavement is in very poor condition.

APPENDIX Asphalt Concrete Roads: Deduct Value and Corrected Deduct Value Curves