Abstract
One component of North Carolina's motor carrier enforcement program is focused on overweight trucks. The aim of this enforcement program is to protect the state's roadway infrastructure, and as such it is important to identify those facilities and roadway segments that are most susceptible to damage from overweight vehicles. For that purpose, a quantitative road vulnerability index (RVI) was developed. Vulnerability is expressed as a function of truck volume, pavement condition, and bridge condition. By weighting these factors, one can assign vulnerability values to road segments statewide. Vulnerable road segments are then mapped in the same geographic information system (GIS) environment used to capture and display motor carrier enforcement activities for overweight violations. In addition to providing information to aid in the spatial assignment of weight enforcement activities, the RVI uses GIS data as a useful tool for the visual analysis and integration of roadway maintenance and operations concerns across various divisions of the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
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