Long Life Pavement Design - The Road to a Sustainable Future
David H. Timm
Civil Engineering, Auburn University
ABSTRACT: Structural pavement design has been largely empirical based since the 1960's. Recent efforts by AASHTO to implement mechanistic-empirical design has led to a more advanced system, yet pavements are still defined to fail over a limited lifespan. A more sustainable option, Long Life or Perpetual Pavement Design, utilizes similar modern mechanistic tools to achieve higher-performing pavement structures over a much longer timeline. This seminar will describe the perpetual pavement design philosophy, introduce computational tools to facilitate such design and highlight research from the National Center for Asphalt Technology Pavement Test Track that supports and validates this design approach.
