Publication Number: FHWA-RD-99-108
Date: October 1999

DataPave 2.0 Puts More Information at Your Fingertips

Eleven years into the 20-year long-term pavement performance (LTPP) study, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has now collected enough raw data to fill a stack of floppy disks as tall as a 132-story building. Since 1997, highway researchers, designers, and others have been able to access this information using the DataPave 97 software. To make exploring, extracting, organizing, and presenting LTPP data easier and more efficient for a wide variety of users, FHWA is releasing an updated version of the software, DataPave 2.0, this month.

The software has several enhancements that make the data more accessible and usable. DataPave 2.0 holds three times more data than DataPave 97-an increase that Monte Symons, LTPP team leader, says is the most significant improvement. The developers have organized the data in a time series, which, with the increase in data and a larger window of time, gives users the capacity to more precisely predict and project trends.

The software includes many other enhancements. For example, DataPave 97 required users to call up a separate program to view the corresponding descriptive codes for fields. Now, users simply click their mouse on a field to view its coding. The developers have also updated the information management system reference manual in the Help file and added a tutorial to aid new users. Kurt Dunn, FHWA LTPP field engineer, describes the tutorial as "a very useful tool, similar to a training class. It's one of the new features that makes the software more user-friendly and that serves the purpose of DataPave, which is to put more information into the hands of the public in a way that encourages them to use it."

The increased ease, flexibility, and efficiency of the software will benefit State and provincial roadway agencies, industry researchers and practitioners, university faculty and students, and highway-related organizations in the United States and elsewhere. "With its extensive range and complexity," says Dunn, "DataPave 2.0 is useful not only to pavement specialists, but others working with material, environmental, and traffic research."

Registered users of DataPave 97 will automatically receive a copy of DataPave 2.0. Others can request a copy from the LTPP customer service desk at 423-481-2967 (email: ltppinfo@fhwa.dot.gov).

DataPave 2.0 requires an IBM-compatible 486DX or faster processor, 12 MB of RAM (16 MB recommended), 120 MB of hard disk space, a CD-ROM drive, supervideo graphics adapter with at least 800 x 600 resolution and 256 colors, mouse, and Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or NT 4.0 (or higher) operating system.

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