Flexible Pavement Overlays: The State Experience

Abstract

The design and construction of flexible overlays has become a popular exercise. However, there is not a simple, straightforward, and yet reliable design procedure that the design engineer can implement on a routine basis. The data needed for overlay design are not easily accessible to the design engineer, and yet the accessible data are not fully reliable in most cases. The process by which the design engineers at the Nevada Department of Transportation handle overlay design is presented. The various steps followed and the obstacles that the design engineer encounters in the search for the necessary data and the final design process are described. Major assumptions must be made along the way that could significantly affect the final design. Three case studies are presented. Each project was designed using three different design methods, including the AASHTO nondestructive testing method, the AASHTO condition survey method, and the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) mechanistic overlay design method. All three methods used the same data gathered by the design engineer for each project. The analysis indicates that there is a significant discrepancy between the two AASHTO methods, whereas the NDOT method and the AASHTO condition survey method agreed on one project.