Development of New Pavement Design Equivalent Single Axle Load (ESAL): Fid-Bau Portal

Development of New Pavement Design Equivalent Single Axle Load (ESAL)

S. H. Alavi / K. A. Senn

Establishing, maintaining, and enhancing the statewide network of roads are among the most important goals of any state highway agency. These require huge investments of both financial and human resources year in and year out. Accordingly, it makes good sense to apply sound engineering practices to ensure these resources are allocated wisely. One of the fundamental and universally sought parameters that influence all new pavement and rehabilitation design decisions is traffic. For a given road segment, accurate estimates of current and projected traffic (in terms of Equivalent Single Axle Loads(ESALs)) can result in significant cost savings, either from the standpoint of initial construction cost or future maintenance and rehabilitation cost. The primary objective of this project is to prepare a new ESAL design table for Arizona's highway network. This new table is based on analysis of current traffic data collection procedures, traffic forecasting methodology, and ESAL development procedures, including the assignment of traffic ESAL levels to the various highway segments. It is also based on new information such as provided by weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems.