
One of the key tasks identified by the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) Asphalt Concrete MEPDG Committee was the laboratory characterization of asphalt mixtures commonly used in Virginia to generate a catalog of the MEPDG-required design inputs. To achieve this improved prediction capability, the MEPDG procedure requires fundamental material properties in addition to certain empirically determined binder and mixture properties as design inputs. The Guide for the Mechanistic-Empirical Design of New & Rehabilitated Pavement Structures (MEPDG), developed under NCHRP Project 1-37A and recently adopted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), offers an improved methodology for pavement design and evaluation.
