Pavement Design

ING. E.K. NYANTAKYI, PHD, PE

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 Outline

1. Pavement Purpose
2. Pavement Significance
3. Pavement Condition
4. Pavement Types
a. Flexible
b. Rigid
5. Pavement Design
6. Example

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 Pavement Purpose
• Load support
• Smoothness
• Drainage
• All weather
operation
• Direction and
guidance

DC to Richmond Road in 1919 – from the Asphalt Institute

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 Pavement Significance
• How much pavement?
– 4 million centerline miles in U.S.
– 2.5 million miles (63%) are paved
– 8.37 million lane-miles total
– Largest single use of HMA and PCC

• Costs
– $20 to $30 billion spent annually on pavements
– Over $100 million spent annually in WA
– Many states over billion dollar budgets

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 Interstate Highway System
• Largest highway system in the world
• Largest public works project in history
• Started construction in 1956
• 90% federal, 10% state funding
• Owned built and operated by states
• Construction and maintenance costs primarily
provided by fuel tax

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 Resources
• Pavement
Interactive
• State DOTs
• AASHTO

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 Pavement Design Procedures
• Asphalt Institute method
• National Stone Association procedure
• Shell procedure
• AASHTO Guide for Design of Pavement
Structures – American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials
– First published in 1972

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 What makes it difficult
• Construction process control
• Material variations
• Exposed environment
– Temperature and weather variability
• Transportation of materials
• Cost of materials
• Unkown traffic loads

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 Pavement Types
• Flexible pavements
– Asphalt

• Rigid pavements
– Concrete

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 Pavement Types
• Want to distribute the load to avoid
permanent deformation

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 Vehicle loads
• Typical vehicle weighs about 3500 lb, tire
pressures around 35 lb/in2
• Truck can weigh up to 80,000 lb with tire
pressure of 100 lb/in2

• Trucks and busses present a much more

significant load on the pavement.

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 Vehicle Volume
• Pavements have a design life, and fail after
cumulative vehicle exposure.
•
Volume of vehicles and prediction of vehicle
volume is fundamental to pavement design.

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 Pavement Condition

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 Pavement Condition

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 Pavement Condition

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 Pavement Condition
• Defined by users (drivers)
• Develop methods to relate physical attributes
to driver ratings
• Result is usually a numerical scale

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 Serviceability Concept
• Pavements degrade over
time due to
– Exposure to traffic
– Time
– Exposure to elements

• Different for different

materials and different
construction methods

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 What pavement thickness is required to sustain X
vehicle loads of Y weight?

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 Pavement Types
• Flexible Pavement
– Hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements
– Called "flexible" since the total pavement structure bends (or flexes)
to accommodate traffic loads
– About 82.2% of paved U.S. roads use flexible pavement

• Rigid Pavement
– Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements
– Called “rigid” since PCC’s high modulus of elasticity does not allow
them to flex appreciably
– About 6.5% of paved U.S. roads use rigid pavement

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 Flexible Pavement

Base: higher strength material than subbase, often a cementing material is used.
Cementing material can beCIVL
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portland cement or asphaltic cement, or other material.
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 Flexible Pavement
• Structure
– Surface course
(waterproof, anti-skid)
– Base course
– Subbase course
– Subgrade

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 Types of Flexible Pavement

Dense-graded

Open-graded Gap-graded
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 Rigid Pavement

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 Rigid Pavement
• Structure
– Surface course
– Base course
– Subbase course
– Subgrade

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 Types of Rigid Pavement
• Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP)

Joints accommodate shrinkage

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 Types of Rigid Pavement
• Continuously Reinforced Concrete
Pavement (CRCP)

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Photo from the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute