Wide base tyres and heavy vehicles : outlines of a cost-benefit analysis

In the last decades the future, such as pavements and fly-overs, are increasingly loaded by heavy freight vehicles. In this study three aspects, dealing with this topic, are considered. Firstly the consequences of wide base single tyres (super single tyres) have been studied, which are nowadays frequently mounted on (semi-)trailers. These wide base single tyres, which have been introduced in the early eighties as substitute of the dual regular tyres, are more damaging for the pavement structures and the bridges and fly-overs. This analysis covered the extra costs for the infrastructure, as well as the benefits on the transport economy side. Also the possible influence on congestion has been investigated. The second item of this study focused to a possible mounting of wide base single tyres on driven axles. Finally possible future changes have been discussed of gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight (GVW/GCW). Prospected consequences are described for the infrastructure, the transport economy and the environment.