Design of bituminous pavements – a performance-related approach

Pavement design in Austria is currently based on a catalogue of standard constructions distinguishing seven load classes and eight pavement types, which can be chosen depending on the traffic-related parameters AADTi (annual average of the daily traffic for each vehicle type i) or AADTT (annual average of the overall daily truck traffic). This approach does not allow one to take performance-related material characteristics or detailed traffic load information into account. To resolve these limitations, a mechanistic approach for the design of bituminous pavements in Austria was developed. Thereby, design levels for the important parameters traffic load as well as hot mix asphalt stiffness and fatigue behaviour are introduced accounting for the level of detail of these variables. This approach ensures that necessary design reserves decrease with increasing experimental effort related to the parameter identification. Hence, this method provides modern, performance-based and economic pavement design.