Evaluation of pavement-oriented countermeasures to mitigate traffic induced vibrations in urban areas

The environmental impact of transport infrastructures represents a critical issue, especially in urban areas. Among different vehicular impacts (noise, air pollution, etc.) vibrations induced by traffic have recently gained wider attention. Ground-borne vibrations that are produced by dynamic overloads transmitted to the pavement surface by heavy vehicles, propagate through road superstructure and underlying soils and, finally, through structural elements of the buildings (facing the street). These type of vibrations, are supposed to be responsible' for severe nuisance to building occupants and for minor structural damage in heritage buildings. In this paper a mathematical prediction model to assess vibration level induced by road traffic is presented. The prediction model is the composition of several interacting sub-models dealing with the different phases in which the problem can be divided: a generation phase due to the dynamic interaction between vehicle and the roughness of road profile, a phase of transmission of vibrations through the pavement structures and, subsequently, through the underlying soils up to the foundations and to the structures of adjacent buildings. The model has been used to assess the effectiveness of different solutions of antivibrating pavements.