Defining homogeneous road sections for BR-040 inside minas’ gerais city of Gongonhas perimeter

Abstract

The highway pavement´s traffic conditions are subject to several different variations along its length due its physical and intrinsical elements, changes in traffic conditions, climate or revitalization works. All of this considered, the parameters required to evaluate highway pavement performance are several, so it becomes crucial to split the highway into homogeneous segments, which must have similar structural and behavioral characteristics. In this context, this work targets to develop a new proposal for homogeneous segmentation for a section of the BR-040 – the section covering the city of Congonhas in Minas Gerais State - highway, in order to contribute to the behavioral analysis of the highway. In order to do it so, it was the used source of Pavement Management´s database provided by the company responsible for the area between the Brasília and Juiz Fora States. The delimitation of the new homogeneous segments was determined according to the "Accumulated Differences Method" (Analysis Unit Delineation by Cumulative Differences) recommended by American Association of State Highway and Tranportation Officials – AASHTO (1993)and defined on the basis of the pavement structure, as well as parameters that reflect the structural and functional conditions of the pavements. It was possible to identify 45 homogeneous segments, highlighting the significant changes in the structural and functional conditions of the pavement analyzed.