Getting Started

This section presents some the typical steps that are used in a new pavement design with links to help topics that will assist you in performing those steps in the CalME user interface (UI).

The flowchart shown below is a very high-level view of the design process and does not include the many administrative, engineering and policy related details that are associated with a pavement design.

Design is an iterative process that must start somewhere, and in CalME, it starts with a traffic loads and a trial pavement structure, both defined on the Project Information page:

•TI (Traffic Index)

•Number of layers

•Layer type (e.g., HMA, AB, SG, etc.)

•Specific layer material (e.g., HMA Type A (Mix 01) RAP00 PG 64-28 Blasted Granite)

•Layer thickness (the initial thickness is not too important since CalFP-Web will determine thicknesses)

Once this has been defined, then CalFP-Web is used to determine a set of design alternatives (i.e., layer thicknesses) that meet the Caltrans R-value design criteria. After one of the design alternatives is selected, an ME simulation is performed (both a Deterministic and Monte Carlo) to see how it performs (i.e., are rutting and cracking Ok) over the design life of the structure. Changes are then made to the initial trial structure and the simulation is run again. This iterative process continues until the design criteria are satisfied.

CalFP-Web will determine R-value consistent thicknesses for a given pavement structure, but it will not determine alternative layer configurations. If you are unable to make your initial layer configuration work for your design constraints, then you will need to manually add or delete layers, change layer types or the specific layer materials.

Each step (process box) in the graphic below is a hot-link (hyperlink) to a section in this help system to show how to do the step in CalME. Simply click on a step to go to the appropriate help section.