Validation of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Using PMS Data

The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (M-E PDG) developed under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 1-37A integrates structural loading due to traffic with the change in material properties due to environmental effects to determine the mechanistic properties of pavement materials. These mechanistic properties are then translated to expected pavement performance through a series of transfer functions (calibration models) to estimate key pavement condition indicators over the life of the pavement. One of the key recommendations of the NCHRP study was that local calibration data should be used to validate and ‘fine tune ’ the national models that were calibrated based on long term pavement performance data from the United States and Canada. Calibration and verification of the national calibration models to reflect local conditions can be intimidating because of the large amount of material test and performance data that is required for a full calibration. However, many agencies already have a significant amount of relevant data collected as a part of their pavement management systems (PMS) which can be used to assist in validating the national models.