Publication Details
2002 Pavement Design Guide
Primary Topic: Pavement Design
Description: The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official's (AASHTO) Guide for the Design of Pavement Structures is widely used in the design of new and rehabilitated highway pavements. However, the current Design Guide, published in 1993, is widely recognized as being inadequate for the design challenges currently faced by highway agencies because it relies on empirically based procedures founded on test data that are not representative of current pavement design conditions.
The limitations of the 1993 Design Guide with regard to pavement rehabilitation are particularly problematic, because pavement rehabilitation requires a major commitment of resources by the Nation's highway agencies. In 1995, highway agencies spent approximately $17 billion on pavement-related projects, with $12.4 billion of the capital outlays going toward pavement-related rehabilitation projects.
The sheer magnitude of annual expenditures on pavements justifies the application of the best available design procedures in order to optimize the use of highway funds. The 1993 Design Guide does not offer the best available design procedures. For this reason, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has undertaken Project 1-37A, "Development of the 2002 Guide for the Design of New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures".
FHWA Publication Number: FHWA-RD-00-129
Publication Year: 2000
Document Links: PDF (file size: 0.1 mb)