Quantification of Infrastructure Consumption under Different Axle Configurations and Wheel Loads
Ambarish Banerjee, Maria Burton, and Jorge Prozzi, January 2016
Recent developments in the energy sector in Texas, in particular oil, gas and wind energy, have resulted in increased volumes of traffic generated in areas such as the Barnett Shale, Eagle Ford Shale, Permian Basin, the Texas Panhandle, and others. In the case of oil and gas, the development and operation of a well site requires significant number of truck movements (including oversize/overweight loads) that accelerate the deterioration of the surface transportation network of the state faster that what was designed for. This unanticipated and accelerated deterioration of the road network imposes additional burden on already insufficient maintenance and rehabilitation budgets that affect most state highway agencies in the United States. The energy sector contributes immensely to the economic competitiveness of the State of Texas and the Southwest Region of the United States, but, under the present situation, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) does not have the necessary resources to keep up with reconstruction, rehabilitation or maintenance of the system to keep it safe for the general public. A solution has to be worked out to address this immediate problem.
Keywords: Oversize, Overweight, Trucks, OS/OW, Equivalent Damage Factor, EDF, DARWin-ME, Load Equivalency
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