Prospect of Using Weigh-in-Motion Based System for Enhancing Vehicle Weight Enforcement - A Case Study of Malaysian Roads

The need to monitor and enforce vehicle weight limits is important to road authorities and those responsible for the maintenance of roads and highways. Overloading of the road and highway pavement by overloaded trucks would accelerate the deterioration of the pavement leading to rutting, cracking, fatigue and possibly structural failure. This is explained by the fact that the relation between vehicle axle load and the damage factor is to the fourth power. This paper discusses the results obtained from a weigh-in-motion (WIM) system installed near a static weigh station along a major road in Malaysia. The WIM system enables the capturing of several traffic and vehicular data which were validated on-site. Vehicle classification, especially different truck categories, as well as gross vehicle weight and each axle weight for each truck were analyzed. The findings were quite revealing in terms of explaining the possible reasons as to why roads in Malaysia experience failures long before the design life span. Based on the results of this study, it is proposed that the weigh-in-motion system should be used in conjunction with the existing static weighing stations to improve vehicle weight enforcement in the country and help prevent the premature road pavement failures.