Keywords: rutting, roughness, pavement management system, flexible pavements, BSC, close range photogrammetry.

Over recent decades, new automated techniques were developed in Europe and America to measure rut depth [1]. These techniques have a number of valuable benefits such as convenience; the requirement of fewer personnel; the safety of the involved personnel and the travelling public; and monetary and time savings. Unfortunately, their cost is outside the allocated budget for most transportation agencies in developing countries. Therefore, they use the traditional methods which are slow, disrupt the flow of traffic, and risk the safety of the personnel involved.

The potential accuracy and limitations of using a reasonably priced technique to measure rut depth in the developing countries were investigated by the authors in a previous work [2,3,4]. The proposed technique utilized close range photogrammetry.

This paper further investigates the potential accuracy and limitations of using close range photogrammetry to measure rut depth. It uses cats' eye points as control points for rut depth measurements. Four highway sites were selected; each site was prepared and videotaped using stereo-pair cameras mounted on the back of vehicle travelling at speeds of 20, 40, 60, and 80 km/h.

The results indicate that the maximum error in x, y and z coordinates are 1.18cm, 3.72cm and 1.36cm respectively. The elevation obtained (z coordinates) of speeds of 40, 60 and 80km/h were compared to that obtained for the speed of 20km/h. The values of the difference mean for the four sites relative to the speed of 20km/h are equal to 0.316cm, 0.52cm and 0.731cm, for the speeds of 40, 60 and 80km/h. respectively. The decrease in the accuracy of rut depth measurement arising from the increase in speed from 20 to 80km/hr was 125%, this decrease in accuracy is more than that obtained in the previous study [4]. The decrease in the accuracy arises from the accuracy of transfer between the tie points from the left to the right photographs.

1

K. McGhee, "Automated Pavement Distress Collection Techniques", Synthesis 334, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. 2003.

2

M.A. Saif, A.M. Ibrahiem, "Measuring Rut Depth Using Close Range Photogrammetry", Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Science - Medicine - Engineering, 20(1), 2008.

3

M.A. Saif, A.M. Ibrahiem, "Mobile Measurement of Rut Depth Using Close Range Photogrammetry", in M. Papadrakakis, B.H.V. Topping, (Editors), "Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Engineering Computational Technology", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 154, 2008. doi:10.4203/ccp.89.154

4

A.M. Ibrahiem, M.A. Saif, "The Effect of Vehicle Speed on Rut Depth Measurement using Close Range Photogrammetry", in B.H.V. Topping, J.M. Adam, F.J. Pallarés, R. Bru, M.L. Romero, (Editors), "Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Engineering Computational Technology", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 168, 2010. doi:10.4203/ccp.94.168

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