Overweight vehicles: impact on road infrastructure and safety

Abstract

This paper presents the available information on overweight road freight vehicles around the world, the impacts they have on road infrastructure, road safety and the economic position of road infrastructure managers, and collected global best practices to prevent and mitigate overloading. Overloading can occur on the basis of Gross Vehicle Weight or on axle weight. Existing limits vary greatly between countries, as do compliance rates, which typically are much higher in Europe and North America than in other regions. Overloading greatly affects infrastructure (road pavements and bridges), though certain designs are more sensitive to overloading than others. In addition, aspects like traffic volume, vehicle design, but also climate and weather can exacerbate certain impacts. Poor infrastructure quality as a result of overloading impacts road safety, but overloaded vehicles are also subject to a deterioration of vehicle performance (braking, steering, handling, structural failure,…). The main driver for overloading is cost reduction for operators, though this saving is proportionately much lower than the additional maintenance cost for infrastructure owners. The paper concludes with recommendations to prevent and mitigate the effects of overloading.