Analysis and Assessment of the Economic impacts of Weigh-In Motion systems

A safe, reliable and financially viable transportation infrastructure and system is the basis of economic growth, development and social welfare in every country. In addition, every transportation facility, such as roads, bridges and tunnels, needs a budget for maintenance, repair and preventive management. Therefore, managers attempt to provide the road system with the best quality materials and maintenance that is possible. A major cause of road defects is the passage of over-weight vehicles, which cause critical damage to the roads. Prevention of the passage of over-weight vehicles is the key to an effective road management system. Since traditional systems are not efficient enough to be able to control the violators and overloaded vehicles, the use of new systems and ITS based facilities is inevitable. WIM (Weigh-In Motion) is anew and efficient technology for controlling the passage of over-weight vehicles and preventing damage to the road surface. In this paper, two pavements are designed for the Arak-Salafchekan route, with the use of data mining in WIM data. In the first case, the pavement is designed for the current situation and current loads, and in the second the pavement is designed for an optimum situation, where traffic is passing with only the maximum load allowed and no over-weight vehicles. The differences between these two cases are then measured by way of the pavement depth, and then translated into economic terms using cost estimates. The result shows there is potentially a huge financial saving and reduction in construction materials when using an over-weight control mechanism.