National Center for Sustainable Transportation

This report presents the implementation of new design method developed using mechanistic-empirical design approach by University of California Pavement Research Center (UCPRC) through building two test sections at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). The study includes a literature review, pavement design procedure, mix design, construction procedure, instrumentation, and collection of performance data of the permeable asphalt and concrete pavement sections for validation and structural design calibration of the new design approach. Fully permeable pavements are characterized as those in which all layers are porous, and the pavement structure serves as a reservoir to store water and minimize the negative impacts of stormwater spillover. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has shown interest in developing fully permeable pavement design for use in territories that convey substantial truck activity as a potential stormwater management best management practice (BMP) to give low-effect infrastructure and proficient framework operation. A location was selected within CSULB for the construction of the test sections. Pressure cells and strain gages were installed during the construction of pavements for measuring the stress on the top of subgrade on both test sections and the strain at the bottom of surface layer to assess the performance of the fully permeable pavements. In the study, the traffic count was also determined. The data acquisition device CDaq was installed at the site to collect the data. The recorded data was analyzed using the MATLAB program code. The data from pressure cells and strain gages are analyzed, and graphs were plotted to study the pattern in the data sets. The stress and strain measurements and the cracking (both sections) and rutting (asphalt section only) will be used to calibrate the pavement structural design procedure and hydraulic performance will also be monitored.

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