ABSTRACT
This study proposes a statistical approach to examine pavement surface deterioration tendencies resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The road inspection results, the historical road databases, and the condition analysis make pavement management a major challenge for managers in Morocco as well as around the world. The decrease in traffic, the maintenance stoppages, the difficulties in obtaining field information, all these imperative ingredients are a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic. In this respect, historical analysis, remote monitoring and damage prediction have become increasingly important. In collaboration with the Moroccan National Center for Road Research, this study examines the impact of pandemic-induced lockup on the variation of three important pathologies: pullouts, cracks and potholes, based on the results of a visual inspection and the results of deflection and evenness performed in 2020 on a 50 km long section connecting Meknes and Khemisset cities. First, the reduction of data based on deterioration represented in four levels (A, B, C and D), second, the comparison of the different pathologies before and after the pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on the pavement quality, and finally, a prediction of the progression of the pathology using the linear regression method. This study will help decision makers to take into account pandemics and health failures in their pavement management approaches, and especially to prevent future damage for budget allocation.
ABSTRACT
This study proposes a statistical approach to examine pavement surface deterioration tendencies resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The road inspection results, the historical road databases, and the condition analysis make pavement management a major challenge for managers in Morocco as well as around the world. The decrease in traffic, the maintenance stoppages, the difficulties in obtaining field information, all these imperative ingredients are a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic. In this respect, historical analysis, remote monitoring and damage prediction have become increasingly important. In collaboration with the Moroccan National Center for Road Research, this study examines the impact of pandemic-induced lockup on the variation of three important pathologies: pullouts, cracks and potholes, based on the results of a visual inspection and the results of deflection and evenness performed in 2020 on a 50 km long section connecting Meknes and Khemisset cities. First, the reduction of data based on deterioration represented in four levels (A, B, C and D), second, the comparison of the different pathologies before and after the pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on the pavement quality, and finally, a prediction of the progression of the pathology using the linear regression method. This study will help decision makers to take into account pandemics and health failures in their pavement management approaches, and especially to prevent future damage for budget allocation.
ABSTRACT
In Morocco, as for all countries worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a huge disruption in the daily life of modern society. The transportation services have been one of the most severely affected of the various urban systems, specifically the national roads and highways. In collaboration with the National Center for Road Studies and Research, this study deals with the challenges of maintenance and monitoring to ensure a good level of comfort on the one hand, and the variability of traffic levels and its impact on the variability of surface indicators and the proper functioning of a Moroccan National road number 6, linking the city of Meknes and Khemissat over a length of 50 km composed of a flexible pavement from 2018 to 2020, which represents the national road most solicited by traffic in Morocco in recent years. The road managers were hardly prepared for such an event, and were concerned to give priority to the safety of their employees and customers to avoid any service interruption. In this regard, the analysis of past deterioration and variation of structural and surface indicators becomes a necessity in these pandemic circumstances. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.