Independent Review of the "Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide" and Software

Abstract

This digest summarizes key findings from National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 1-40A, an independent, comprehensive review of the "Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide" (MEPDG) and companion software Version 0.7 delivered under NCHRP Project 1-37A in June 2004. Part I of this digest summarizes the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the independent review of new Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) pavement design, new Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavement design, composite pavement design, and design reliability. Part II tabulates the responses of the Project 1-40D research team to the essential, high-priority recommendations of the independent reviewers with respect to corrections and improvements to the MEPDG software, which represents the day-to-day implementation of the design guide itself. Most of these recommendations were successfully incorporated in software Versions 0.8 and 0.900, yielding a stable, robust, and accurate tool for pavement design.