GUIDE FOR MECHANISTIC-EMPIRICAL DESIGN OF NEW AND REHABILITATED PAVEMENT STRUCTURES

The overall objective of this Design Guide is to provide the highway community with a state-of-the-practice tool for the design of new and rehabilitated pavement structures, based on mechanistic-empirical (M-E) principles. This objective was accomplished through developing the following: the Design Guide itself, which is based on comprehensive pavement design procedures that use existing M-E technologies; and user-oriented computation software and documentation based on the Design Guide procedure. This Guide provides a uniform and comprehensive set of procedures for the design of new and rehabilitated flexible and rigid pavements. It employs common design parameters for traffic, subgrade, environment, and reliability for all pavement types. Recommendations are provided for the structure (layer materials and thickness) of new and rehabilitated pavements, including procedures to select pavement layer thickness, rehabilitation treatments, subsurface drainage, foundation improvement strategies, and other design features. The procedures can be used to develop alternate designs using a variety of materials and construction procedures. The Guide is presented in four parts. Part 1 provides an introduction. Part 2 includes definitions and procedures on how to obtain the necessary inputs for the design of new or reconstruction projects, as well as for rehabilitation projects. Part 3 includes detailed background material to assist the user in understanding the concepts used in the development of the Guide and in the proper application of the design procedures. All aspects of pavement design including subsurface drainage design, shoulder design, as well as the design of new, reconstruction, and rehabilitation flexible and rigid pavement projects are discussed in Part 3. Part 4 discusses how the M-E process can be applied in designing pavements subjected to low traffic volumes. The appendices to the Guide contain detailed information related to a number of additional design considerations.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Files from NCHRP 01-37A are no longer available. Refer to the most up to date version of AASHTO's Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide: A Manual of Practice, https://store.transportation.org.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  ARA, Incorporated, ERES Consultants Division

  505 West University Avenue
  Champaign, IL  United States  61820
• Publication Date: 2004-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: v.p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Climate; Computer program documentation; Drainage; Flexible pavements; Guidelines; Low volume roads; Materials; Mechanistic design; Pavement design; Reconstruction; Rehabilitation; Rigid pavements; Road shoulders; Software; State of the practice; Subgrade (Pavements); Traffic
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Materials; Operations and Traffic Management; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I23: Properties of Road Surfaces;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00977102
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NCHRP 1-37A,, Final Report
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 10 2004 12:00AM