A SURVEY OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLE WEIGHTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

 

A.K. Azad*, S. Parvez, and  H.I. Abdul Wahhab

Dept. of Civil Engineering King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

 

and

A. H. Al-Harbi and A. R. Al-Azzam

Ministry of Communications, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

 

ABSTRACT

 

With the aim of characterizing the commercial vehicle composition and in order to examine the overweight problem prevailing in Saudi Arabia under the imposed regulatory controls, a four-year truck load survey was carried out using truck data collected from the wayside weigh stations installed at various traffic corridors. The sample size, built on a random selection, exceeded over one million trucks. Additional field surveys were also conducted at selected locations to obtain supplementary data and information. In this paper, the findings of this study are presented drawing attention to the revelation that overweight problem -still exists at an uncomfortable level, whose damaging impact on roads and bridges cannot be ignored. Data analysis also shows that the four provinces, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Central Province, bear an astonishing degree of similarity with regard to truck composition and the extent and magnitude of overweight.

 

The Arabian Journal of science and Engineering, volume 26, Number 113, April 2001