Development of Alabama traffic factors for use in mechanistic-empirical pavement design.

Details

• Creators:
  Turochy, Rod E. ; Timm, David H. ; Mai, Derong
• Corporate Creators:
  Auburn University. Highway Research Center
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration ; Alabama. Dept. of Transportation
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Mechanistic-empirical pavement design
  • Traffic data
  • Weigh in motion
  • Rigid pavements
  • Flexible pavements
  • Thickness
  • Data collection
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/ALDOT 930-793
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Alabama
• Corporate Publisher:
  Auburn University. Highway Research Center
• Abstract:
  The pavement engineering community is moving toward design practices that use mechanistic-empirical (M-E) approaches to the design and analysis of pavement structures. This effort is ; embodied in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) that was developed ; over the last several years through the National Cooperative Highway Research Program ; (NCHRP) and accompanying AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design® ; software. As ALDOT moves ; toward implementation of M-E pavement design, the need to evaluate the effects of differences ; among the many types of traffic data on pavement design became apparent. This research ; project examined the differences among national-level traffic inputs developed through the ; aforementioned NCHRP studies (and now included as the default traffic data in the Pavement ME ; Design® ; software), state-level traffic inputs developed from data collected at ALDOT’s weigh-in-motion (WIM) sites, and site-specific data. The full range of traffic inputs considered in the M-E ; design process was divided into 13 groups; the effects of the three levels of data were evaluated ; separately for each group. A rational, unbiased, quality control procedure for ALDOT WIM data ; was developed and applied to the data. Traffic inputs at levels 1 (national), 2 (state or regional), ; and 3 (site-specific), as specified in the design software, were then developed. The sensitivity of ; the pavement thickness required to not exceed a specified set of allowable pavement distresses, ; for both flexible and rigid pavements, to different levels of traffic data in Alabama was then ; determined. Finally, axle load spectra recommendations for flexible and rigid pavement design ; were made for future use by ALDOT.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/29484/dot_29484_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.84 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:e40c7285c3835421d61043887bc906f77efaae50dbb4fe02c2ae3fdbc5e75eb1