Abstract
Since 1987 the Federal Lands Highway (FLH) Branch of FHWA has been evaluating acceptance of newly constructed bituminous pavements using California-type profilograph measurements. California Test Method 526 and FLH T504, as well as various acceptance plans, have been used in this evaluation. The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to determine whether operator trace reduction variability was too large for the method to be suitable for acceptance testing; (b) to decide the type of acceptance plan to incorporate into the Standard Specifications for Construction of Roads and Bridges on Federal Highway Projects (FP 92); and (c) to evaluate two commercially available computerized trace reduction systems. The study concludes that when used in conjunction with statistical evaluation procedures, the test method is suitable for acceptance purposes and that computerized trace reduction is superior to manual reduction. Also presented are some fundamentals of statistically based acceptance that are not widely known or understood by highway engineers.
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