Dynamic loading of bridges - OECD DIVINE project

In many OECD Member countries it has been estimated that one third to one half of all road and bridge maintenance is due to the effects of heavy truck axle loads. It has been suggested that 10% of these costs could be avoided through the design and use of more road-friendly vehicles. While it is essential to limit the national budgetary impacts of heavy vehicle effects, improved productivity in the movement of freight is also required. Better understanding of the dynamic effects of heavy vehicles on pavements and bridges could lead to reduced maintenance costs and strategic vehicle weight increases within the capacities of pavements and bridges. The OECD is undertaking the Dynamic Interaction between Vehicle and Infrastructure Experiment (DIVINE) in order to quantify the benefits of road-friendly vehicles, to provide means of assessing vehicles for road-friendliness and to determine the effects of new vehicle technology on bridges. Accelerated dynamic pavement testing, vehicle-pavement testing and vehicle-bridge testing are being used to explore the question of the effect of dynamic loading on pavement life and bridge behaviour and essential tools will be developed for measuring, understanding and predicting dynamic loading from heavy vehicles. One important element of the DIVINE research program - bridge testing - is being carried out by EPA in Switzerland and this is being supported by an Australian bridge testing project (AUSTROADS/QUT). Australia strongly supports the aims of the DIVINE Program which commenced in late 1993. This paper presents an overview of the OECD DIVINE research program and discusses means of implementing the results of the research in Australia.