Simple Design Procedure for New Flexible Pavement Structures Based on Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide

This study developed a set of design tables to be used by the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) to design new flexible pavement structures. To use the tables, the designer selects the design life of the pavement (10 or 15 years), the type of subgrade soil, and the average daily truck traffic volume in the design lane in the first year. The design tables were built for each of the 11 regions of the New York State DOT by assembling the design solutions obtained by running the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide software starting from typical design scenarios. The scenarios followed the design solutions given in the Comprehensive Pavement Design Manual (CPDM) currently used by the New York State DOT. The work included the analysis of New York State DOT traffic data, the compilation of a database of material characterization data for the pavement materials used in New York State, and the regional calibration of distress models used in the design guide for new flexible pavements. The comparison of the newly created design tables with those given in the CPDM shows that the new design solutions are more sensitive to traffic volume than are the design solutions provided in the CPDM. For low traffic volume–-annual average daily truck traffic (AADTT) < 500 vehicles per day–-the recommended total thickness for the hot-mix asphalt (HMA) layers is less in the new design table than in the CPDM, whereas for medium and high traffic volume (AADTT > 500), the recommended total thickness for the HMA layers is slightly higher in the new design tables than in the CPDM.