The Challenges to Innovation with the MEPDG - Case Study: Cold Recycled Mixtures (With Discussion)

A significant advancement in the current pavement design state-of-the-practice is represented by the proposed Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG), although there are still challenges to innovation. Full depth reclamation and cold in-place recycling examples describe these limitations and impediments: however, for any type of mixture, including polymer-modified asphalt concrete, a similar case could be made. The examples are used to explore MEPDG predicted distress result impacts of fatigue cracking data, low temperature cracking, and actual measured dynamic modulus, as well as variations on these parameters. The author provides a list of future development recommendations.