With the final report of Austroads’ long-term pavement performance study released in January, Roads & Infrastructure Magazine finds out what the 24-year research project can tell us about the condition of our road networks.
Back 1938, Harvard University commenced a study of adult development with 268 students, eventually adding another 456 people to the research.Since then, and for more than 80 years the subjects of the study have been surveyed every two years, with physical examinations every five – making it one of the longest running development studies in history.
Because of the massive amount of data available, the researchers have been able to learn a significant amount, including that the quality of holidays someone has had in their youth will often indicate increased happiness in later life.Like the Harvard study did for humans, Austroads’ 24-year long-term performance (LTPP) study can tell us a lot about the quality of our roads and what can have a positive affect later on in the pavement lifecycle.
While a fair way off 78 years, the nearly quarter of a century study is a major achievement for the Australian road sector. With the final report of the research released earlier this year, it has created a new foundation of information on the state of the nation’s roads, particularly as one of its authors believes it to be the longest study of Australia’s road performance to date.
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