2013 - USA - Effect of Night Time Paving on Roughness

The relationship between nighttime construction scheduling and future road quality in terms of roughness was investigated. Research was three-phased: interviews with local leaders in paving, on-site observations, and historical data analyses. Interviews and on-site observations served to explore potential differences in the paving practices and general opinions in the paving industry regarding daytime versus nighttime paving, while the bulk of empirical research took place in the historical data analyses. Differences in road quality, defined as pavement roughness in this study, between day-scheduled construction and night-scheduled construction were determined by an analysis of the International Roughness Index over the pavement lifecycle as made available to researchers by the Alabama Department of Transportation. Results showed that the roughness values of pavements laid at night were significantly higher than those of pavements laid in the day. Analyzed in 3, 30-month intervals beginning at project completion, night and day roughness values were equal in the first interval, but differences in means and variances expanded in the second and third intervals, with increasing significance over time. Researchers believe the increasing gap over time could be the result of initial night-time construction conditions lack of inspector involvement, low illumination levels and poor visibility, and worker fatigue, with inspection problems being most detrimental.