Minnesota Department of Highways Flexible Pavement Design 1969: Fid-Bau Portal

Minnesota Department of Highways Flexible Pavement Design 1969

F. C. Fredrickson / P. J. Diethelm / D. M. Zwiers

For the past five years the Minnesota Department of Highways has been conducting a research project (Investigation 183) which has the purpose of studying the performance of Minnesota flexible pavements and applying the results of the study to the design of flexible pavements. The results and methods developed at the AASHO Road Test have been used to define performance and as a basis for the study and evaluation of 50 Minnesota test sections. The background material and analyses are presented in the report entitled 'Application of AASHO Road Test Results to Design of Flexible Pavements in Minnesota--Summary Report' (1968). The procedure suggested is dependent on the correlation between pavement spring deflections and the number of equivalent 18,000-lb single axle loads which the pavement can withstand before the Present Serviceability Index of the section drops to 2.50. A serviceability index of 2.50 is considered appropriate for considering maintenance because the structure of the pavement section is still relatively intact. The methods and relationships used to develop the design procedure are presented and discussed. The need to continually check and improve these relationships is emphasized. Suggestions are made on how to continue this work. The procedures necessary to run the computer program for the traffic analyses are given in an appendix. (BPR abstract)