Characterization of the traffic through load spectra. Case study: "Trunk road 15, section Valle de la Pascua - El Tigre, States Guarico - Anzoategui, Venezuela"

The characterization of the traffic by means of the concept of load spectrum, constitutes the alternative with the best accuracy to represent the loads of heavy vehicles according to the methods of analysis and design of pavement structures with a mechanistic approach. To plot the load spectra or frequency histograms, it is necessary to know the configuration of the vehicle type and the real weight per axle, this information is obtained from dynamic in-situ studies, known by its acronym WIM (Weight in Motion). This work proposes the methodical characterization of the heavy traffic of the Valle de la Pascua - El Tigre highway section, corresponding to Trunk 15 between the states of Guarico and Anzoategui. For this, a week-long mobile weighing station (WIM) capacity was taken as reference, the data was processed according to each vehicle class and according to the configuration of the type of axle, and spectra or histograms were obtained load by vehicle class and axle type, which represents the variable traffic of this road section. Subsequently, a statistical adjustment was applied with the use of continuous distribution functions, for a significant simplification regarding the number of parameters that define of the transit variable.