AASHTO Journal, 21 August 2015
The AASHTO Bookstore has just released for sale its “Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide: A Manual of Practice-2nd Edition,” tying its data-driven forecasts and road surface applications to the latest commercially available design software through AASHTOWare.
The book is available in three formats – in print, as a PDF download and as a set that includes both the PDF and print versions.
The updated software link is the major change in this edition from when the Bookstore published its first M-E pavement design manual in 2008, said Erin Grady, director of publications production.
That first edition pulled together the results of years of MEPDG design and analysis study on how assembling data on traffic, climate, materials, production processes and other factors can allow engineers to predict the results of varied pavement applications, from how long those surfaces will age to how cracks will form.
The information, in turn, allows users to tailor their project plans and materials purchases to get the optimum road surface.
M-E design was a major change from pavement design methods in practice earlier, and is increasingly used along with modern road construction machines that make computerized adjustments in material applications.
This second edition references the latest version of AASHTOWare’s trademarked “Pavement MeDesign” software to manage the data this design process requires. It was revised from software described in the previous manual edition, based on evaluations by state departments of transportation and others in the industry.
