<title>Pavement instrumentation for load response</title>

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During the early 1980's, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Research Coimcil, under the sponsorship ofthe Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and with the cooperation ofthe American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) undertook a thorough study of the deterioration of the nation's highway and bridge infrastructure system. The study recommended that a Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) be initiated to focus research and development activities that would make major contributions to improving highway transportation. The study report published as TRB Special Report 202 during 1984, emphasized six research areas, with the Long Term Pavement Perfonnance (LTPP) program as one ofthe key research areas. During 1985 and 1986, the detailed research programs were developed for SRRP by independent contractors. The detailed programs were published in May 1986 as a TRB Report entitled, "Strategic Highway Research Program - ResearchPlans." The Long Term Pavement Performance was envisioned as a comprehensive program to satisfy "the total range of pavement information needs." It draws on "technical knowledge ofpavements presently available and seeks to develop models that will better explain how pavements perform. It also seeks to gain knowledge of the specific effects on pavement performance of various design features, traffic and environment, use of various materials, construction quality, and maintenance practices." As sufficient data becomes available with time, analysis will be conducted by various agencies to provide better performance prediction models for use in design and pavement management, to provide much better understanding of the effects of many variables on pavement performance, and to provide new techniques for pavement design and construction. This paper focuses on one phase of the program -pavement instrumentation. Prior to limiting the focus, a brief overview ofthe overall LTPP program is presented