Use of Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Principles to Assign Asphalt Pavement Pay Factor Adjustments

Abstract

This paper promotes the quality analysis of flexible pavements by exploring the role of analysis programs as laboratory support tools to assess the quality of constructed pavements. Specifically, the research explored the significance of laboratory dynamic modulus testing on assigning pay factor adjustments in these tools. In the United States, the current methods of pavement acceptance are based more on construction craftsmanship (i.e., density and smoothness, percent within limits) as opposed to how the pavement will actually perform once constructed. The use of performance-based specification models would enable a state transportation agency to quantify the impacts of varying as-built mixture quality in terms of (1) a projection of pavement service life, and (2) presenting life-cycle costs in a way that both agencies and contractors can understand. Two publicly available performance-related specification (PRS) quality assurance (QA) analysis tools have been developed based on mechanistic-empirical pavement design principles and were assessed for a small set of mixtures. The quality related specification software (QRSS) utilizes a predictive equation and traffic, binder, and mixture volumetric data to predict dynamic modulus (