ViaStructura – a new way of pavement structure design

Abstract

The catalogues of standard pavement structures are common way to design road pavements. In 2019, new regulation for the design of standard pavement structures KPT SDK 19 was issued in Lithuania. One of the new requirements require verification of layer thickness of high-class pavement structures. Such verification should be done by internationally approved mechanistic-empirical methods. In addition, it is recommended to use the same methods to adjust the layer thickness of the selected standard pavement structure for lower classes. These calculations are particularly applicable when the design load (ESAL) is at the lower or upper limit of the class range. Vilnius Tech Road Research Institute experts and outsource IT specialists spent two years for the design model ViaStructura development. Web software based on mechanistic-empiric approach include the boundary conditions, based on Austria, the United States and Germany experience and laboratory test results of construction materials. Materials can be selected from created database, which can be simply expanded with the new materials by the user. as Additional function allow comparison of separate designed pavement structures. The article present the concept of the ViaStructura model for the design of flexible pavement structures, reveals its main principles and advantages comparing to the pavement structure selection by the standard catalogue.