Impact of Traffic Overload on Road Pavement Performance

J. C. Pais 1; S. I. R. Amorim 2; and M. J. C. Minhoto 3

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Abstract: Traffic on a road pavement is characterized by a large number of different vehicle types, and these can be considered in pavement
design by using truck factors to transform the damage they apply to the pavement to the damage that would be applied by a standard axle. The
truck factors to convert trucks into standard axles or the load equivalent factors to convert axles into standard axles are defined by considering
the average loads for each axle. This process includes the vehicles that travel with axle loads above the maximum legal limit. There are also a
substantial number of overloaded vehicles in terms of total vehicle weight. These axles/vehicles cause significant damage to the pavements,
increasing the pavement construction and rehabilitation cost. Thus, this paper investigates the impact of overloaded vehicles on road pave-
ments by studying the truck factors for different vehicle cases applied to a set of pavements composed of five different asphalt layer thick-
nesses and five different subgrade stiffness moduli. The study revealed that the presence of overloaded vehicles can increase pavement costs
by more than 100% compared to the cost of the same vehicles with legal loads. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000571. © 2013
American Society of Civil Engineers.
CE Database subject headings: Pavements; Trucks; Load factors.
Author keywords: Road pavements; Traffic; Overloads.

Introduction Traffic on a road pavement is characterized by a large number of

State transportation agencies spend large amounts of money to
preserve their road systems. Rehabilitation costs are responsible for
the high amount of investment needed to extend the life of a pave-
ment. A pavement is designed to last, but it often does not perform
as expected and, after a relatively short period of time, needs to be
rehabilitated. The main problem that appears in a pavement is sur-
face cracking caused by the pavement bending under traffic loads,
thermal shrinkage due to temperature variations, top-down cracking
due to stress concentration at the pavement surface, and reflective
cracking due to stress concentration near the crack tip of the
existing layers of rehabilitated pavement. Other pavement problems
are of less importance and are usually overcome during pavement
rehabilitation performed because of cracking.
The behavior of a pavement depends on the characteristics of
its structure (materials and thickness of each pavement layer),
the quality of its construction, the climatic conditions (temperature
and freeze-thaw cycles), and the subgrade (bearing capacity and
presence of water). However, it is the traffic (i.e., load intensity,
frequency, and axle and tire configuration) that is primarily respon-
sible for pavement problems due to the loads applied by the axles
and tires of vehicles. Heavy traffic causes the most important fail-
ures in a pavement producing fatigue cracking and rutting that
require pavement rehabilitation.
1
Associate Professor, Univ. of Minho, 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal
(corresponding author). E-mail: jpais@civil.uminho.pt
2
Research Assistant, Univ. of Minho, 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal.
E-mail: sara.rodrigues.amorim@gmail.com
3
Adjunct Professor, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, 5301-854
Bragança, Portugal. E-mail: minhoto@ipb.pt
Note. This manuscript was submitted on November 28, 2012; approved
on May 6, 2013; published online on May 8, 2013. Discussion period open
until February 1, 2014; separate discussions must be submitted for indivi-
dual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Transportation Engineer-
ing, Vol. 139, No. 9, September 1, 2013. © ASCE, ISSN 0733-947X/2013/
9-873-879/$25.00.
different types of vehicles with variations in load magnitude, the
number of axles, and the axle grouping (e.g., single axles when
the distance between axles is large, tandem axles when two axles
are very close and far from the other axles, or tridem axles when
three axles are very close and far from the other axles). Heavy
vehicles can have all type of axles or some combinations of the
various types. The different axle types have differing influences
on pavement performance.
Truck weight regulations are used to control the rate of damage
to a pavement. Permitting heavier loads can increase the rate at
which pavement damage accumulates, thus increasing the cost
of maintaining good pavement conditions. High truck loads, load
configurations, and number of trucks also lead to pavement
deterioration, necessitating load limitations and early replacement
(Zaghloul and White 1994).
Using two different data sets, one from an interstate in Illinois
and the second from the Federal Highway Administration combin-
ing traffic data from seven states, Mohammadi and Shah (1992)
observed that the truckload spectra reveal that overloads generally
appear with a distinctly different pattern in roads with higher load
than in those with lower load levels, mainly among trucks with
five or more axles. With these results, they developed a model
to represent the different patterns appearing in the load spectrum
to determine to what extent overloads are responsible for damage
done to bridges and highways. The model can also be used to
estimate the frequency of occurrence of heavier loads in transpor-
tation facilities and thus determine the damage potentials of over-
loads when traffic data are expressed in terms of percentages of
passages of each weight class.
In effort to realize the influence of traffic loads on pavement
performance, Timm et al. (2005) proposed models to characterize
the traffic distribution, based on two or more theoretical distribu-
tions, to accurately characterize axle load spectra, which can
be used to study the impact of the overload traffic on pavement
performance.
Fuentes et al. (2012) evaluated the Truck Equivalency Factors
for Colombia and found that for some truck classes (C3—a single

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 unit truck with three axles: a single and a tandem axle; and
C3-S3—6 axles tractor semitrailer: a single and a tandem axle in
the tractor; a tridem axle in the trailer) the obtained values reveal
that these vehicles are circulating excessively overloaded on some
roads of the country, causing accelerated deterioration on the
pavement structures in terms of fatigue, cracks, and ruts. This con-
clusion is important because the traffic spectrum analyzed in this
paper revealed an identical trend.
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The analysis of the impact of the overloads in the pavement
performance was carried out by studying the following:
• Truck factor for overloaded vehicles;
• Truck factor for legal vehicles;
• Truck factor for all vehicles (overloaded and legal loads); and
• Influence of asphalt layer thickness and subgrade stiffness
modulus on truck factor.
This study will be relevant for pavement designers, highway

The designing of a road pavement, accounting for the large agencies, and other professionals concerned with pavement design
variety of vehicle types, is made by converting passages of axles because it will allow a rigorous study of traffic, mainly in terms of
into a number of equivalent passages of a standard axle that is the definition of the load equivalency to be used in the design of a
considered as the reference in pavement design; this standard is road pavement.
usually an 80-kN single axle with dual tires. The theory for this
conversion is well-known, and the conversion is a function of
the axle type and load. If the axle load for a vehicle is known, Traffic Data
the factor to convert that vehicle into a standard axle can be defined,
and the traffic can be converted into the number of passages of the Due to technical, economic, and competitive factors, vehicles have
standard axle. a maximum weight limit that is a function of the number of axles
The first procedure used to convert traffic into standard axles and the axle configuration (i.e., single, tandem and tridem axles).
was defined in the AASHTO Guide for Design of Pavement Struc- For single axles, the maximum weight limit depends on whether the
tures (AASHTO 1993), which allows converting a mixed traffic axle is a steering axle or an axle with or without traction. For tan-
stream with different axle loads and axle configurations into a de- dem axles, the load limit depends on the distance between the two
sign traffic number. This is achieved by converting each expected axles of the tandem axle. For tridem axles, the load limit depends
axle load into an equivalent number of 80-kN single-axle loads, on the total distance between the outside axles.
known as an equivalent single-axle load (ESAL), by using the load Due to the different vehicle configurations, in Portugal vehicles
equivalent factor that is calculated as a function of the axle load and are classified into different classes based on the number of axles as
type of pavement structure. shown in Fig. 1. Class F includes the single-unit trucks. Class G
The calculation of the ESAL was recently moved from an em- includes the double trucks. Class H includes the semitrailers. Class
pirical basis, such as the method proposed in the AASHTO guide, I includes the buses. Fig. 1 also includes the maximum load for
to a mechanistic approach, such as the methods used by White et al. each axle. The limit on total vehicle load is the sum of the maxi-
(1994), Jessup (1996), Hong et al. (2006), and Prozzi et al. (2007). mum load for each axle. The limits presented in this figure will be
In the mechanistic basis, the load equivalent factors are obtained by used to define the overloads for the traffic considered in this paper
the ratio between the pavement life for the standard axle and the where an overloaded vehicle has at least one axle carrying a greater
pavement life for the actual load. weight than that allowed by law for that axle.
The design of a road pavement uses an expected number of ve-
hicles to define the number of equivalent passages of the standard
axle. The expected number of vehicles for an existing pavement is
defined based on the actual traffic and the traffic growth for the
designed period. This traffic is expressed in terms of number of
vehicles, mainly heavy vehicles (i.e., trucks). In this case, the traffic
design consists of the transformation of the number of trucks
expected for the design period into ESAL. This transformation
is effectuated by using the truck factor that is based on the axle
type and loads for each type of truck. The truck factor for a
pavement is the average of the truck factor for each type of truck
considered in the traffic spectrum, and the truck factor for a truck is
the sum of the ESAL for all axles of that truck.
In terms of passages of a vehicle on the road, its total weight
and corresponding load of the axles depend on various factors,
and it is impossible to predict the actual load unless it is measured.
Weight measurement is primarily carried out using weigh-in-
motion systems, which record the weight of each axle of the
vehicles.
The knowledge of the actual loads, mainly overloads applied to
the pavement, is important in predicting the pavement life and de-
fining the ESAL to be used in pavement design. Thus, this paper
will study the effects of overloads on pavements in terms of pave-
ment life by analyzing a traffic database with records from 2006 to
2010 for a motorway, divided into 15 classes of vehicles. This
paper will analyze the traffic data in terms of the following:
• Average axle loads for each type of vehicle;
• Percentage of overloads;
• Percentage of vehicles in each traffic class; and
Fig. 1. Vehicle classes and maximum legal load
• Frequency of passage.

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J. Transp. Eng., 2013, 139(9): 873-879

 The development of this paper was carried out considering a
database with traffic records for 5 years, from a weigh-in-motion
system, that provided hourly weight data for all axles of heavy ve-
hicles traveling in both directions on one of the two highways with
weigh-in-motion systems in Portugal and available online from the
Portuguese Road Administration Web site. The weigh-in-motion
system is located near the northern border with Spain and the
traffic represents the main movements between the two countries.
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The records also include information about the number of heavy
vehicles that exceeds the maximum weight on at least one axle.
The accuracy of the data extracted from this system is not known:
however, for the study carried out in this paper, a detailed analysis
was performed to remove all data incompatible with the traffic
characteristics.
The first analysis of the traffic records showed that the annual
average axle load is a function of the type of vehicle. For direction 1,
Fig. 2 shows that the annual average axle load for each axle in a
class ranged between 20 and 90% of the maximum load allowed by
law. For most types of vehicles, the average load was almost con-
stant between axles (e.g., classes F1, F3, H2, and I1). However, for
some classes (F4, G1, G2, G3, H3, and I2), there was a significant
difference between the axle loads for the different axles in relation
to the maximum load defined by law. For example, in class G1,
there were axles that had an average load of approximately 20%
and others with 50%. In terms of axle number, it is the first axle
that had the relative maximum load except for classes F3 and F4.
The results for the other direction have the same shape, but there is
a clear difference in terms of average axle loads, which are lower
than for direction 1.
Despite the existence of maximum limits for axle loads, heavy
vehicles typically travel with much lower average loads than those
limits. This fact can contribute positively to the definition of load
equivalence factors, mainly in terms of truck factors. When actual
load spectrum is unknown, the use of maximum legal loads sug-
gests a considerable safety margin. However, some axles (e.g., 3rd
axle of F4) present a weight greater than 80% of the legal limit,
which may indicate the existence of considerable overloads for
these axles.
Although the average traffic loads are considerably lower, the
number of overloaded vehicles can be very large. Overloading
occurs when at least one axle has a load that is higher than the
maximum allowed for that axle. The percentage of overloaded ve-
hicles can be observed in Fig. 3 for direction 1 of the motorway.
These overloaded vehicles are more evident for classes F4, H4, H5,
and H6. In the other direction, the overloaded vehicles are more
evident for classes F4, G2, G3, and H6.
The results presented in Fig. 3 show that 2009 presents the
largest number of overloaded vehicles and for classes F4 and
Fig. 2. Typical annual average loads measured for vehicle axles
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J. Transp. Eng., 2013, 139(9): 873-879
Fig. 3. Percentage of overloaded vehicles
H6, almost 60% of the traffic was overloaded. In the other years,
the number of overloaded vehicles was approximately 40%, which
is extremely high and may have led to serious consequences for the
pavement performance. For the other direction, the number of over-
loaded vehicles is substantially lower. However, for some classes it
reaches nearly 40%. The classes with a high number of overloaded
vehicles are not the same for both directions. Only F4 class presents
a high percentage of overloaded vehicles in both directions. The
other classes with a high percentage of overloaded vehicles include
H4 and H5 in direction 1 and G2, G3 and H6 in direction 2. There
are no substantial differences throughout the 5 years of traffic data.
As shown in Fig. 4, the number of overloaded vehicles can be
related to the level of loading. If the average axle load increases, the
percentage of overloaded vehicles also increases. This trend is valid
up to an average load of approximately 50%. After this point, the
percentage of overloaded vehicles rises substantially. This analysis
was carried out for the second axle of the vehicles, which is the
most representative axle for truck loads. This figure can be used
to assess the amount of overloads based on the actual traffic loads.
Although traffic is divided into several classes, only the F1, H3,
and H5 classes have considerable traffic volumes. In all these
classes, the percentage of traffic is higher than 10% of all vehicles
(Fig. 5). In addition to these three classes, there are also classes H1
and I1 that, in spite of the fact that they have less than 10% of the
heavy traffic, are significant in terms of weight when compared to
the other classes. In relation to annual variations, it is noted that the
percentage of heavy vehicles has not changed throughout the years
considered in this study, except for 2010. In this year, F1 presented
a significant increase of vehicles that has reduced traffic in classes
H3 and H5.
Fig. 4. Comparison between average load and overloaded vehicles

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Fig. 5. Percentage of vehicles in each class during the analysis period
Models
The impact of overloads on pavement performance was studied
by calculating the effect of all vehicles on pavement performance.
The effect of different types of vehicles with different loads may be
represented by converting all vehicles into a representative vehicle
(more precisely, into a representative axle), which in pavement
design is referred to as a standard axle resulting in the ESAL.
The conversion of the vehicle axles into ESAL allows considering
a vehicle as a certain number of single-axle loads. The ESAL for
a heavy vehicle is also referred as the truck factor, which indicates
the equivalence, in terms of pavement performance, between a
vehicle and the single-axle load.
By definition, the ESAL is the ratio between the damage of the
passage of an axle on a pavement and the damage of a standard
axle, usually the 80-kN single-axle load, passing on the same
pavement, as indicated in Eq. (1), where N 80 is the pavement life
for the standard axle load, usually the 80-kN single-axle load, and
N x is the pavement life for the actual axle load:
N 80
ESAL ¼ ð1Þ
Nx
The ESAL is generally expressed as the relationship between
the actual axle load (Px ) and the load of the standard axle
(P80 ), as indicated in Eq. (2) (Laboratoire Central des Ponts et
Chaussées 1994), where k = a coefficient that is a function of
the type of axle (single, tandem or tridem) and α = a coefficient
that is a function of the type of pavement (most importantly, the
pavement stiffness):
 α
Px
ESAL ¼ k ð2Þ
P80
For the calculation of coefficient k, the model presented in
Eq. (3), which allows the consideration of any combination of
asphalt layer thickness, subgrade stiffness and type of axle, was
developed:
k ¼ 254.03 × ðEsub Þ0.033393 × ðH bet Þ−1.0416 × e−1.2928×AP ð3Þ
This model is valid for pavements with a granular layer of 20 cm
of thickness and the asphalt layer with 5,000 MPa of stiffness
modulus. Esub = the subgrade stiffness (MPa), H bet = the asphalt
layer thickness (cm), and AP = the axle parameter as defined in
Table 1.
In some pavement design methods, where the k value of Eq. (2)
is used, the model developed in this paper in Eq. (3) can be used
to consider a specific pavement by defining the thickness of the
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J. Transp. Eng., 2013, 139(9): 873-879
Table 1. Axle Parameter (AP)
Axle type Parameter value
Single-axle single-wheel 1
Single-axle dual-wheel 2
Tandem-axle single-wheel 3
Tandem-axle dual-wheel 4
Tridem-axle single-wheel 4.5
Tridem-axle dual-wheel 5.5
asphalt layer, the stiffness of the subgrade layer, and the type of
wheel (i.e., single wheel or dual wheel).
In this study, a value of 4 for the α parameter [Eq. (2)] was used,
which is representative of asphalt mixtures for base layers accord-
ing to the fatigue cracking results for a set of 16 asphalt mixtures
used in asphalt base layers tested by Pais et al. (2009).
However, it should be noted that α is a function of the type
of distress being analyzed. For example, the value of α used in
this paper compares well with the one obtained by Archilla and
Madanat (2000) for rutting for the case of a tandem axle where
they found a value of 3.89, but it is relatively different when con-
sidering single axles, where the α parameter was 2.98. Archilla and
Madanat (2001), using data from the AASHO road test and the
WesTrack road test, found a value for α of 2.44 (for single axles)
and 2.86 (for tandem axles), both significantly different from 4.
When using a recursive nonlinear model considering the pavement
roughness, Prozzi and Madanat (2003) found that the power was
approximately 4.2, which was very close to the 4 power considered
in this study for pavement cracking. Prozzi and Madanat (2004)
and Prozzi (2001), using data from the AASHO road test jointly
with data from MnRoad Project, found a value of α of 3.85 when
considering roughness and 4.15 when considering serviceability,
values that both compare well to the one defined in this paper
for fatigue cracking. More recently, Guler and Madanat (2011), us-
ing the AASHO road test data, found that for pavement cracking
initiation, the appropriate power is 8.49 considering single axles
and 8.14 considering tandem axles.
The main limitation of the proposed model to calculate the
ESAL is related to the α parameter that was chosen to take into
account only the pavement cracking. For pavements with other dis-
tresses, a different α parameter must be used. Also, for pavements
with a combination of different distresses, different α parameters
must be used as explained previously.
Results
The analysis of the effect of the overloaded vehicles was carried out
by studying the effect of traffic on different pavements and calcu-
lating the effect in different situations. In terms of pavement struc-
tures, five asphalt layer thicknesses (10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 cm) and
five subgrade stiffness moduli (40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 MPa) were
considered. The asphalt layer properties are considered included in
the stiffness modulus of 5,000 MPa used in the development of the
model presented in Eq. (3). The analysis of the truck factor was
carried out for four different situations:
• The vehicle with the maximum legal load allowed by axle;
• The vehicle with the maximum truck factor;
• The average truck factor observed; and
• A vehicle with an average load of each axle.
The effect of the overloaded vehicles in the pavement perfor-
mance was determined by assessing the truck factor for the four
cases identified earlier by separating the overloaded vehicles from
the vehicles with legal weight.
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Fig. 6. Truck factors of overloaded vehicles for a pavement with 10-cm asphalt layer and 80-MPa subgrade stiffness

Fig. 7. Truck factors of vehicles with legal weight for a pavement with 10-cm asphalt layer and 80-MPa subgrade stiffness

The results for the truck factors of all overloaded vehicles for with 80-MPa subgrade stiffness, whereas Fig. 9 shows the results
a pavement with 10 cm asphalt layer and 80 cm subgrade stiffness for a pavement with a 20-cm asphalt layer thickness.
are presented in Fig. 6. The analysis of this figure allows the con- The influence of overloaded vehicles on pavement performance
clusion that the truck factors for all classes of vehicles are almost is shown in Fig. 10, where the truck factor for vehicles with the
identical and no significant differences can be found among the maximum legal load per axle is compared to the average truck fac-
vehicle with the maximum legal load per axle, the average truck tors observed for overloaded vehicles and for legal vehicles. The
factor observed and a vehicle with the average load in each axle. results show that the truck factor for overloaded vehicles is almost
However, there are vehicles with very high loads, which lead to
very high truck factors as observed in Fig. 6.
For the same pavement (10-cm asphalt layer and 80-MPa
subgrade stiffness), the results for the vehicles with legal loads
are indicated in Fig. 7. The truck factors were identical for all
classes of vehicles except for class F1, as this class includes all
small heavy vehicles with weights starting at approximately
35 kN. However, when empty, they present a weight of approxi-
mately 15–20 kN, which corresponds to a small truck factor. In
Fig. 7, a significant difference between the truck factor for vehicles
with the maximum load and the vehicles with the average load and
the average truck factor can be observed. This happens because
empty vehicles have a reduced truck factor.
The behavior of all vehicles for the other asphalt pavements is
similar. The truck factor decreases as the asphalt layer thickness
increases. There is little increase in the truck factor when the sub-
Fig. 8. Influence of asphalt thickness on the truck factor of vehicles
grade stiffness increases, as depicted in Figs. 8 and 9 in which the
with the maximum legal load per axle for a pavement with 80-MPa
truck factor is represented for vehicles with the maximum legal
subgrade stiffness
load per axle. The analysis presented in Fig. 8 refers to a pavement

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Fig. 9. Influence of subgrade stiffness on the truck factor of vehicles
with the maximum legal load per axle for a pavement with 20-cm
asphalt layer thickness
identical to the truck factor for maximum legal loads. For vehicles
with legal loads, the truck factor is considerably reduced when
compared to the maximum legal loads.
These facts indicate the effect of the overloaded vehicles is not
significant when compared to the vehicles with the maximum legal
loads, but it is extremely significant when compared to the vehicles
with actual traffic. On average, overloaded vehicles do not cause
Fig. 10. Influence of the overloaded vehicles on the truck factors for a pavement with 20-cm asphalt layer thickness and 80-MPa subgrade stiffness
Fig. 11. Increase of overloaded vehicles cost for a pavement with 20-cm asphalt layer thickness and 80-MPa subgrade stiffness
878 / JOURNAL OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING © ASCE / SEPTEMBER 2013
J. Transp. Eng., 2013, 139(9): 873-879
more damage to pavement than vehicles with the maximum legal
load in all axles. This happens because a significant number of
overloaded vehicles are overloaded on one or more axles and
not overloaded in terms of the total load.
Based on the results obtained in this paper, some useful recom-
mendations can be suggested for road infrastructure managers as
well as for traffic control authorities. These recommendations
are related to the cost of overloaded vehicles compared to the
legal loaded vehicles. This cost can be estimated by calculating the
difference between two cases: overloaded vehicles and overloaded
vehicles limited to the legal axle load (overloaded vehicles where
all overloaded axles were reduced to the maximum legal load for
those axles). The difference between these two cases gives the
increased cost due to the overload and is proportional to the differ-
ence between the truck factors for the two cases.
The simulation carried out to analyze the effect of the over-
loaded vehicles was performed for a pavement with 20 cm of as-
phalt thickness and a subgrade stiffness of 80 MPa. The results are
expressed as the increase of the overloaded vehicles cost compared
to the same vehicles limited to the legal load and are presented in
Fig. 11 where one can observe that the average cost of an over-
loaded vehicle can be more than 100% of the cost of a legal loaded
vehicle.
For the principal traffic classes (F1, H3, H5, and I1; see Fig. 5),
the cost of overloaded vehicles can be as much as 30% greater
compared to the cost of legally loaded vehicles. In terms of
 pavement life, these results mean that the pavement will have only
approximately 70% of the expected pavement life.
The analysis performed in this study considered for the parameter
α [Eq. (2)] a value of 4. Different results are expected when using
different values of α as stated by Johnsson (2004). Johnsson
concluded in his study that choosing the wrong power leads to a
deviation from the correct cost estimate of between −0.8 and
þ0.2% of the annual road wear costs. Anani and Madanat (2010)
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concluded that changing α from 3 to 5 led to an increase in the mar-
ginal cost by a factor of 1.6 for a single axle of 85 kN. This highlights
the importance of properly selecting the parameter α.
Conclusions
This paper presents a study about the impact of overloaded vehicles
on road pavements performance by studying the truck factor for
different types of vehicles when applied to a set of pavements in-
cluding five different asphalt layer thicknesses and five different
subgrade stiffness moduli. The study includes an analysis of a
traffic database consisting of traffic information for 5 years for a
motorway.
The study of the traffic information allowed the conclusion that
heavy vehicles do not circulate with the maximum load defined by
law. On average, and depending on the axle position, the load of
each axle ranges from 20 to 90% of the maximum legal load.
However, there are an important number of overloaded vehicles.
For class F4 and H6 the number of overloaded vehicles was
approximately 60%, whereas for some classes the number of over-
loaded vehicles was approximately 40%.
The study carried out in this paper concluded that the effect of
vehicle loads is diminished by increasing the asphalt layer thick-
ness. The influence of the subgrade on the vehicle loads effect
is very low when the primary pavement distress is the fatigue
cracking.
The study revealed that, for consideration in pavement design, if
vehicles are considered to be at their maximum legal weights, the
effect of overloaded vehicles on the pavement performance is
clearly reduced. However, the presence of overloaded vehicles
can increase costs by more than 100% compared to the cost of
the same vehicles with legal loads.
The conclusions obtained in this paper are based on some as-
sumptions, mainly the alpha exponent and distress mechanism.
Different assumptions will lead to different conclusions. However,
the effect of overloaded vehicles on the pavement performance
will be evident for different assumptions.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Foundation for Science and
Technology for funding Projects PEst-OE/ECI/UI4047/2011 and
PTDC/ECM/74033/2006.
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J. Transp. Eng., 2013, 139(9): 873-879
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