Ten peer-reviewed papers give you a timely look at HMAsmoothness measurements, specifications, and equipment. Evidenceshows that pavements constructed with low roughness measurementsperform longer with fewer needed maintenance activities thanpavements with a higher level of initial roughness. This collectionof papers, written by industry experts, provides an overview of thecurrent approaches to constructing smooth HMA pavements.

Three sections cover:

State Agency Perspective—provides insight into both thehistory of the development and the implementation of ride qualityspecifications for new hot mix asphalt pavements in Alabama,Arizona, New Jersey, Virginia, and Tennessee. These papershighlight the wide range of differences in equipment and approachesused to quantify HMA smoothness by state agencies across thecountry. This information will provide the readers with insightinto complexities associated with developing and implementing ridequality specifications.

National and International Perspectives—uses analysis ofthe Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) national pavementdatabase to determine the affect of various constructionalternatives on the smoothness of the final HMA surface. It alsopresents correlation equations that relate the traditional, butslow, method of measuring roughness with a hand-operatedprofilograph to that measured with the state-of-the-artvehicle-mounted. A second paper compares the use of six devices formeasuring roughness on recently constructed Taiwan highways. Thisinformation will prove especially useful for agencies faced withassessing ride quality in confined urban areas.

Equipment Comparisons, Materials Considerations, andAnalyses—focuses on how various HMA mixtures, friction courses,and construction practices influence smoothness measurements andpavement quality; and compares the results obtained from aninclinometer profiler and a vehicle mounted profiler when used totest a wide range of HMA mixtures. Correlations betweenconstruction practices and their influence on roughness are alsopresented. It also discusses a new method for analyzing the rawprofile obtained by a wide range of profilers. This analysis methodcan be used to improve data processing for any equipment thatcollects the raw profile

This new publication is a valuable technical resource for

• Consulting and Paving Design Firms

• Pavement Design Engineers

• Asphalt Suppliers and Contractors

• Federal, State, and Local Government Personnel involved withRoad and Highway Management and Development

• Asphalt Researchers