Abstract

In northern regions of the world, frost action damages are a common problem on roads. Frost action damages often result in unevenness in the road surface and cracks in the pavement. Cracked asphalt leads to an uncomfortable driving experience and decreases the safety of the road. Since the frost action damages can affect traffic much it is important that the road owners maintain the road networks and also perform surveys to identify areas affected by frost action damages. Today, frost action damages are identified by visual inspection which is a time-consuming method. International Roughness Index (IRI) data is collected on most roads across the world and is used to determine the smoothness of the roads. If there would be a way of determining what types of damages are present on the road from IRI data, it would save a lot of time. This paper focuses on finding a correlation between IRI data and identified frost action damages by examining pictures taken along two roads in Norrbotten county, Sweden and identifying what damages are caused by frost action and where they are located. The IRI data from the same sections have been examined to identify a connection. The IRI values increase most of the time at frost action damaged sections, however, the same is true for sections with bearing capacity damages. Damages on roads can be located but not identified using IRI-data.