One of the Indiana Department of Transportation's (INDOT's) strategic goals is to improve its pavement design procedures. This goal can be accomplished by fully implementing the 2002 mechanistic–empirical (M-E) pavement design guide (M-E PDG) once it is approved by AASHTO. The release of the M-E PDG software has provided a unique opportunity for INDOT engineers to evaluate, calibrate, and validate the new M-E design process. A continuously reinforced concrete pavement on I-65 was rubblized and overlaid with a 13–in.-thick hot-mix asphalt overlay in 1994. The availability of the structural design, material properties, and climatic and traffic conditions, in addition to the availability of performance data, provided a unique opportunity for comparing the predicted performance of this section using the M-E procedure with the in situ performance; calibration efforts were conducted subsequently. The 1993 design of this pavement section was compared with the 2002 M-E design, and performance was predicted with the same design inputs. In addition, design levels and inputs were varied to achieve the following: ( a) assess the functionality of the M-E PDG software and the feasibility of applying M-E design concepts for structural pavement design of Indiana roadways, ( b) determine the sensitivity of the design parameters and the input levels most critical to the M-E PDG predicted distresses and their impact on the implementation strategy that would be recommended to INDOT, and ( c) evaluate the rubblization technique that was implemented on the I-65 pavement section.
Data Collection for Implementation of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) in Izmir, Turkey
