Local Road Management Manual 360 DEFINITION Potholes, for rating purposes, are failures that extend to the unbound layer. Severe settlement, Slip or Base failures are also rated under Potholes. Pavement disintegration that does not penetrate to the unbound layer is rated under Surface Failure. A successfully patched area is not a pothole. (See the item “Patches (Flexible Pavement)” in section 3.1.1) PURPOSE Many of the potholes rated in this item will be fixed in a matter of weeks and as such, are of little value to the long- term determination of maintenance strategies. However, the measurement of these potholes in a road gives a good indication of the general health of the pavement and future deterioration. METHOD This item is assessed over the total carriageway area of the segment. (Refer to “Procedure For Rating” in section 2.5) Potholes are rated according to the number of potholes, recorded according to the diameter of the potholes rounded to the nearest 0.5m within the carriageway area over the total length of the segment. Settlement, Slip and Base failures are also rated as one pothole per 0.25m2. MEASUREMENT The number of potholes is rated per 100m lengths. If a pothole is greater than 0.25m2 in size then each 0.25m2 is counted as a pothole. This applies to potholes the full lane width as well. A pothole covering an area of 2m x 1.5m is counted as 12 potholes. The number of potholes is converted to represent the number of potholes on an equivalent 1000m long road that is 6.7m wide. Therefore a segment 500m long and 6.7m wide that has 1 pothole is equivalent to 2 potholes on a 1000m segment that is 6.7m wide. This calculation is done within the DESS.