The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has launched the interactive Pavement Impact Comparison Calculator for consultation, to enable road managers to understand the long-term pavement effects of freight activity on roads.
The beta release follows the successful introduction of Freight PASS and represents the NHVR’s continued commitment to empowering better decision making in the road transport industry.
The Pavement Calculator is a state-of-the-art tool designed to estimate the vertical pavement loading impacts of heavy vehicles.
It considers various factors like different pavement types, axle configurations, axle masses, tyre sizes and road-friendly suspension, offering a wide-ranging analysis.
According to the NHVR, the resource is especially useful for road managers without pavement engineering expertise, allowing them to assess the impacts of freight vehicles on their infrastructure accurately.
NHVR CEO, Sal Petroccitto, said the tool will help users understand that more productive vehicles can actually expand the lifespan of the roads, because fewer vehicles are needed to transport the same freight task.
“The Pavement Calculator indicates that larger and heavy vehicles are not necessarily worse for roads than smaller vehicles, especially if they meet the requirements of the NHVR’s Performance-Based Standards scheme,” he said.
“This information helps facilitate discussions between road managers and industry to achieve the best outcome.
“For example, a PBS A-Double at higher mass limits and fitted with road-friendly suspensions can cause 38 per cent less pavement wear than a B-double at general mass limits.”
The Pavement Calculator will assist road managers in making more efficient and favourable access decisions for higher mass vehicles, potentially leading to larger trucks being allowed on roads without compromising infrastructure sustainability.
The tool’s development involved the use of trusted resources already used by road managers in road design and assessments, such as Austroads’ pavement research and transport agency pavement guidelines.
Consultation on the Pavement Calculator closes 05 April 2024.
For more information and to access the tool, click here.
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