Assessing the Agreement among Pavement Condition Indexes

Pavement condition indexes are numerical indicators of the structural and material integrity of a pavement. Because these indexes appear to be similar (essentially a 0–100 scale, with 100 indicating ideal condition), it can be tempting to use different indexes for comparing the performance of pavement networks in different states or jurisdictions within a state. To ascertain the level of agreement among these condition indexes, six pavement condition indexes from five DOTs in the United States are discussed and compared using distress and ride quality data obtained from the Pavement Management Information System of the Texas Department of Transportation. The computed scores were compared visually (using scatter plots) and statistically (using paired t -test). The results provide empirical evidence that there are significant differences among seemingly similar pavement condition indexes.