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• Incremental Costs and Performance Benefits of Concrete Pavement Design Features

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Figure 1. Design feature benefits. Diagram. This conceptual graph shows the improved serviceability that can be realized by choosing an enhanced pavement design rather than a standard concrete pavement design. An enhanced pavement design is one that includes higher quality or additional design features in comparison to the standard design. Time or traffic is plotted on the horizontal axis, and the pavement serviceability is plotted on the vertical axis. The chart presents two separate curves representing the performance of the enhanced and standard concrete pavement designs. Both curves decrease in value, but the standard design line decreases more rapidly than the enhanced design line. Both lines extend to a horizontal line representing a critical serviceability. Because the standard design line decreases more rapidly, it intersects the critical serviceability line at an earlier time or traffic level than does the enhanced design line. When each design line intersects the critical serviceability line, a vertical line is extended down to the horizontal axis. The age difference between these two intersection points represents the life extension gained by using the enhanced pavement design. The area between the two curves, and above the critical serviceability line, represents the benefit area of improved performance.