University of Texas at Austin. Center for Transportation Research

FHWA/TX-09/0-5513-1

Tech Report

Texas

Texas. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Technology Implementation Office

Comprehensive and reliable databases are essential for the development, validation, and calibration of any pavement design and rehabilitation system. These databases should include material properties, pavement structural characteristics, highway traffic characteristics, environmental conditions, and performance data. In general, performance data consists of the development of rutting, roughness, and cracking. It is true that these databases are currently available in Texas; however, they were originally designed and are currently being maintained with specific objectives in mind, which are not necessarily their potential uses for pavement design. Specifically, some of these databases have been designed for network level applications, not compatible with the calibration of data intensive performance models such as those typical of mechanistic-empirical design systems. The goal of this research project is the development of the Texas Flexible Pavement Database. In order to achieve this goal, a plan for the development of a sustainable database was conceived, followed by the development of interim database structures in MS Access for uploading the required data and for data sharing. The initial population of the database has been initiated with the objective of performing local calibration. This integrated database approach has been designed as a project-level application with the purpose of developing, validating and calibrating empirical or mechanistic flexible pavement design models. It will interact with and complement the Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) and other existing databases such as the Design and Construction Information System (DCIS). This report summarizes the research progress during the first year of the research project.

PDF

http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/31000/31100/31153/0_5513_1.pdf

0-5513

US Transportation Collection