Variability of Film-Derived Pavement Distress Data

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the Findings of an effort undertaken by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program to assess variability of distress data collected using a photographic method. The primary source of data used to characterize the film-derived distress data variability is the results of a distress survey conducted on 12 pavement test sections, including six asphalt concrete (AC) and six portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements. Distress surveys were performed by experts, individual raters, and two-person teams. A consensus survey on the pavements by a group of experts based on the photographic method was also conducted. Finally, a reference rating of the distress present on the same 12 test sections was performed using a consensus manual rating method by the same group of experts; data from these reference surveys were used as a surrogate of “ground-truth”. Based on the analyses of these data, variability of the film-derived distress data was evaluated and both apparent bias and precision for the data were quantified. It was observed that data interpreted by two-person teams were more consistent and showed smaller variations.

Keywords:

• Bias and precision
• Distress data
• Filmed-derived
• PASCO
• Variability

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chung-Lung Wu

Corresponding author. Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] E-Mail: [email protected]