Innov. Infrastruct. Solut.
(2017)2:18
DOI 10.1007/s41062-017-0067-6
TECHNICAL PAPER
Comparison of AASHTO 1993 and MEPDG considering
the Egyptian climatic conditions
Maha A. El-shaib1 • Sherif M. El-Badawy1 • El-Sayed A. Shawaly1
Received: 23 January 2017 / Accepted: 19 May 2017
 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
Abstract The current flexible pavement design system in
Egypt was adopted primarily from the AASHTO 1993
Design Guide. It is an empirical design method based on
the results of the late 1950s AASHO Road test with many
limitations. Thus, the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement
Design Guide (MEPDG) which is now called Pavement
ME Design was developed to overcome those limitations.
Unlike the AASHTO 1993 method, MEPDG considers the
variation in moisture and temperature on the mechanical
properties of the pavement layers. The main objective of
this paper is to compare the AASHTO 1993 and MEPDG
methods based on a recently developed Egyptian climatic
data. The AASHTO 1993 method was used to design the
thickness of a typical flexible pavement structure, using
two different levels of traffic (low and high) and two dif-
ferent types of subgrade strength (weak and strong). Then,
the AASHTO 1993 designed structures were simulated
with MEPDG to predict performance over 20 years of
service life. The comparative analysis of AASHTO 1993
design guide and MEPDG revealed that although all
pavement sections in this study were designed with the
AASHTO 1993 method for the same serviceability loss,
they exhibited different performance as predicted by
MEPDG. The variation of the MEPDG-predicted perfor-
mance of the AASHTO 1993 designed pavement structures
& Sherif M. El-Badawy
sbadawy@mans.edu.eg
Maha A. El-shaib
M_elshaib2000@yahoo.com
El-Sayed A. Shawaly
sayed_shwaly@mans.edu.eg
1
Public Works Engineering Department, Faculty of
Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
increased with the increase in traffic level and decrease in
the subgrade strength. This variation was different for
different climatic conditions. For the Egyptian conditions,
the predominant distress was rutting. Finally, the climatic
conditions showed a significant effect on distress occur-
rence and time to failure, especially the AC rutting.
Keywords AASHTO 1993  MEPDG  Performance 
Climate  Traffic  Distress
Introduction
The Egyptian method of pavement structural design for
flexible pavements relies primarily on the AASHTO 1993
design method. As known, AASHTO 1993 Guide for Design
of Pavement Structures has limitations in its application to
today’s truck traffic or to sites with varying climate and
subgrade materials [1, 2]. One of the major limitations of this
design method is the empirical drainage layer coefficients
(mi). These coefficients in addition to the seasonal variation
of the roadbed resilient modulus are the only environmental
consideration in the method. However, pavements are sig-
nificantly affected by the environmental conditions. With the
current limited funding in Egypt, there is an emphasis on the
adoption of a cost-effective pavement design method, which
produces accurate designs and, thus, good performance over
the pavement service life. The Mechanistic-Empirical
Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) software utilizes closed
form models to analyze traffic, climate, subgrade and labo-
ratory measurements of material properties to predict the
performance of various pavement designs over their entire
service life [1, 3]. Thus, MEPDG, if calibrated to the local
conditions, is thought to produce more reliable pavement
structures compared to the AASHTO 1993 method.
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18 Page 2 of 9
Literature review
Several literature studies compared the AASHTO 1993 and
MEPDG design methods. Boone conducted a comparative
study between the Ontario structural pavement and the
AASHTO 1993 methods [4]. The results showed that the
AASHTO 1993 method generally over-predicted pavement
performance relative to the MEPDG for new flexible
pavements and asphalt overlays over flexible pavements.
The MEPDG showed that most of the new flexible pave-
ments and asphalt overlays designed using the AASHTO
1993 method failed primarily due to permanent deforma-
tion (rutting) and/or roughness. The asphalt layer thick-
nesses obtained using MEPDG exceeded the asphalt layer
thicknesses obtained using the AASHTO 1993 method, and
a poor correlation was observed between the asphalt layer
thicknesses obtained using the two methods.
In-service pavements located in different regions in
Idaho that have been designed according to the Idaho
Transportation Department (ITD) design method were
redesigned using the AASHTO 1993 as well as MEPDG
procedures [5, 6]. The designs were conducted at 50 and
85% reliability levels. The nationally calibrated MEPDG
(version 1.1) was used to predict the performance of the
flexible pavement systems designed using the three design
methods. Level 2 subgrade material characterization inputs
were used in the MEPDG analysis. All other MEPDG
inputs were level 3. Performance indicators predicted using
MEPDG for the pavement systems designed using the three
design methods were compared to each other. In general,
the three design methods yielded reasonably similar
thicknesses for the asphalt layer at the 50% reliability.
However, at the higher reliability level (85%), MEPDG
yielded thicker AC compared to both methods especially in
case of very weak subgrade strength.
Saha et al. compared the flexible pavement design using
the Alberta Transportation Pavement Design (ATPD) and
MEPDG [7]. In her study, six different design cases were
defined with three different traffic levels and two different
subgrade materials. The researcher reported that, when
using the MEPDG, only the cases with a strong subgrade
material and a low traffic level met the threshold value for
total pavement rutting. Moreover, all sections designed
following the ATPD procedure, when redesigned using the
MEPDG, failed due to excessive International Roughness
Index (IRI).
Carvalho et al. also used the AASHTO 1993 guide to
design pavement sections for a range of environmental
conditions, material properties, and traffic levels [8]. The
performance of these design sections was evaluated using
MEPDG. The pavement structures considered in this study
were simple three-layer flexible pavements, consisting of
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Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. (2017)2:18
an asphalt concrete (AC) mixture on top of a granular
aggregate base (GB) resting over subgrade. Designs were
developed for five different states representing a range of
US climate and soil conditions (Alabama, Arizona, Mary-
land, South Dakota, and Washington). A survey was con-
ducted by department of transportation (DOT) personnel in
each of the states to determine appropriate or typical values
for the pavement design parameters (e.g., subgrade resilient
modulus, structural layer coefficients, and drainage coef-
ficients) at each location. Three traffic levels were con-
sidered in the study. The results showed that the individual
distress predictions from MEPDG methodology showed
significantly variable behavior for rutting and fatigue
cracking performance.
Aguib [9] conducted a sensitivity analysis to investigate
the MEPDG-predicted behavior in terms of fatigue crack-
ing and rutting with respect to variations in environmental
conditions, traffic levels, AC layer thickness and proper-
ties, granular base layer thickness and subgrade strength.
Comparison of MEPDG and AASHTO 1993 design
methods revealed that pavements designed with the
AASHTO 1993 did not perform equally at the end of their
design life. Terminal Serviceability Index values were
different for different traffic levels and locations. Predicted
fatigue cracking and rutting showed a trend similar to
terminal Serviceability Index values. The AASHTO 1993
was also found to over-estimate pavement layer thick-
nesses compared to MEPDG.
Another study was conducted in Iran, which compared
the AASHTO 1993 design method with the MEPDG using
the highest level of data accuracy (level 1) [10]. The
properties of five in-place pavement sections designed by
the empirical AASHTO 1993 method were used to rede-
sign these sections using MEPDG. Results showed that
asphalt thickness designed with MEPDG was thinner than
the empirical method. The researchers also reported that
these results were sensitive to the failure criteria. Finally,
the main predicted distress was alligator cracking which
was in agreement with the distresses occurring in Iran.
The main objective of this study is to compare the
AASHTO 1993 design method and MEPDG based on a
recently developed climatic data covering three different
Egyptian climatic locations considering the same traffic
levels and material properties.
Study methodology
To explore the possibility of implementing MEPDG for
designing flexible pavement structures in Egypt, a com-
parative study was conducted between the AASHTO 1993
and the MEPDG methods. There are many differences
Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. (2017)2:18
inherent in both design methodologies which make it very
difficult to directly compare them. For example, the inputs
for each design method are different either in number and
also the nature of the input. The AASHTO 1993 uses
18Kips ESAL to express traffic loading while MEPDG
uses Axle load spectra (ALS). The design criterion in
AASHTO 1993 is the loss in serviceability, while in
MEPDG the design criterion is expressed in terms of per-
formance (rutting, cracking, and Roughness). The relia-
bility in AAHTO 1993 is imposed on traffic, while in
MEPDG it is imposed on each performance indicator,
rutting, cracking, and roughness). Thus, to make the
comparison of both methods, the AASHTO method was
used to design the thicknesses of typical three-layer pave-
ment structure, using two different levels of traffic (low and
high) and two different types of subgrade (weak and
strong) at three different climatic conditions at 90% relia-
bility level. The MEPDG was then used to predict the
performance of these AASHTO designed sections and
compare the predicted performance to the default MEPDG
design criteria at 90% reliability level. The MEPDG
default design criterion at 90% reliability level is shown in
Table 1. The MEPDG software was run 12 times based on
the nationally calibrated MEPDG pavement distress mod-
els implemented in the MEPDG software (version 1.1). On
average, each simulation run took around 20 min to be
accomplished.
AASHTO 1993 inputs and design thicknesses
To use the AASHTO 1993 method, the traffic expressed in
18-kips equivalent single axle load (ESAL) at the end of a
20-year design life was used. Two levels of traffic loads
were used in this analysis and denoted as low and high. The
ESALs for low (3.8 millions) and high (45 millions) traffic
levels were calculated from the default axle load spectra
(ALS) data in the MEPDG. A granular unbound base layer
with a California Bearing Ration (CBR) value of 80% was
Table 1 MEPDG recommended design criteria at 90% reliability
level [11]
Distress Performance criteria at
90% reliability
Initial IRI, in/mi (m/km) 63 (0.99)
Terminal IRI, in/mi (m/km) 172 (2.71)
AC surface down cracking (longitudinal 2000 (378.79)
cracking), ft/mile (m/km)
AC alligator cracking (% lane area) 25
Permanent deformation (AC only), in (cm) 0.25 (0.60)
Permanent deformation (total pavement), 0.75 (1.90)
in (cm)
Page 3 of 9 18
considered for all designed sections. The input values used
for the AASHTO 1993 design method are summarized in
Table 2. The thicknesses resulted from the AASHTO 1993
design method are summarized in Table 3.
MEPDG simulation runs
The pavement sections designed by the AASHTO 1993 for
the four different cases were used with the MEPDG to
predict their performance over time. Using the MEPDG,
three different climatic locations in Egypt were considered
to investigate the climate condition effect pavement per-
formance. These locations are Cairo, Alexandria, and
Aswan as shown in Fig. 1. The climatic data for these
locations were generated as part of another study by the
authors of this paper [12, 13]. The weather properties of the
three locations are shown in Table 4.
Figure 2 depicts the typical pavement section used for
the simulation runs. The MEPDG inputs for the four
investigated cases are summarized in Table 4. It should be
noted that the materials and traffic used for both methods
were kept the same. However, the difference was in the
characterization method inherent in each method. For
example, while MEPDG uses axle load spectra to express
the traffic, the AASHTO 1993 uses ESALs.
One should note that the MEPDG transfer functions
should have been calibrated for the Egyptian conditions.
However, the nationally calibrated models in the MEPDG
were used as calibration of the MEPDG distress models is
not within the scoop of this study. The MEPDG software
version 1.1 was run 12 times with the provided inputs
shown in Table 5.
Results and discussion
A summary of the MEPDG-predicted distresses at the end
of the design life for the four investigated cases at the three
climatic locations along with the time to failure and
allowable distress values is given in Table 6. It should be
noted that no thermal cracking was predicted for all cases.
This was expected as the temperature in Egypt is moderate
and warm even during the winter time. Table 6 shows that
for total rutting, the minimum and maximum predicted
values among all four cases were 1.38 and 5.71 cm,
respectively. The minimum value was observed in
Alexandria for case 4 (low traffic–strong subgrade) which
is the best condition for a pavement while the maximum
value was observed in Aswan for case 2 (high traffic–weak
subgrade) which is the worst condition. The difference
between maximum and minimum rutting was about
313.7%. The rutting values in all pavement cases exceeded
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Table 2 Input values for the AASHTO 1993 design guide

Case condition High traffic and strong High traffic and weak Low traffic and weak Low traffic and strong
subgrade subgrade subgrade subgrade

Design life (years) 20

Reliability (%) 90
Initial serviceability index (Pi) 4.2
Terminal serviceability index (Pt) 2.5
Overall standard deviation (S0) 0.35
ESALs (millions) 45.0 3.8
Resilient modulus (Mr) granular 42,250 (290)
base, psi (MPa) CBR = 80%
Resilient modulus (Mr) subgrade, psi 22.5 (155) 7 (50) 7 (50) 22.5 (155)
(MPa) CBR = 30% CBR = 5% CBR = 5% CBR = 30%
a1 (AC layers) 0.40
a2 (granular base) 0.13
m2 (granular base) 1.0

Table 3 Layer thicknesses based on the AASHTO 1993 design method

Case condition High traffic and strong High traffic and weak Low traffic and weak Low traffic and strong
subgrade subgrade subgrade subgrade

AC layer thickness, in 8 (21) 5.5 (14)

(cm)
Base layer thickness, in 5 (12.5) rounded to (15)a 20 (50) 15 (40) 5 (12.5) rounded to (15)a
(cm)
a
The minimum thickness of the base layer as per the AASHTO method is 15 cm

Fig. 1 Locations of the selected

weather stations

the allowable limit of 1.90 cm except Alexandria and Cairo the fact that the environmental condition significantly
case 4 (low traffic–strong subgrade). affects pavement performance. The same pavement struc-
Considering the time of pavement distress to reach the ture was found to behave differently from one climatic site
threshold value for each location, the results emphasize on to another as shown by the results in Table 6 and also

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Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. (2017)2:18
Table 4 Mean annual climatic data for the selected weather stations [12, 13]
Weather Mean annual air Mean annual wind
station temperature (C) speed (km/h)
Alexandria 21.80 17.22
Cairo 23.48 10.30
Aswan 24.40 8.59
Fig. 2 Typical cross section used in the simulation runs
Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6. Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 show the MEPDG-
predicted distresses and roughness throughout the 20 years
of design life for the case of high traffic and weak sub-
grade. The maximum allowable distress values are also
presented on these figures. Among the predicted distresses,
pavement rutting and roughness are the critical distress
types which clearly match actual field conditions in Egypt.
In addition, these figures emphasize the great influence of
the environmental conditions on pavement performance.
Even though these sections were successfully designed
with the AASHTO 1993, each section actually performed
differently when analyzed using MEPDG methodology
taking into consideration different climatic location.
To compare the two design methodologies, the nor-
malized difference was computed as given in Eq. 1.
% Normalized difference ¼
Pavement distress  Maximum allowable distress
 100
Maximum allowable distress
ð1Þ
Positive normalized difference values denote that the
predicted distress exceeded the allowable value (failed
design), whereas negative values denote good performance
(successful design). The higher the normalized difference
value, the higher the predicted distress compared to the
allowable value. The ideal value is the one closer to zero,
which means the design meets the performance indicator.
Figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 show the normalized difference
for total rutting, longitudinal cracking, alligator cracking,
Page 5 of 9 18
Mean annual Mean annual cumulative Mean annual relative
sunshine (%) precipitation (mm) humidity (%)
88.78 232.00 64.69
89.97 69.90 48.41
96.09 9.50 27.98
and IRI, respectively, for all four design cases. These fig-
ures show that although the four designs were conducted
with the AASHTO 1993 design method for the same ser-
viceability loss (design criteria), each designed case per-
formed differently as predicted by MEPDG. In addition,
the climatic location also affected the performance
significantly.
As seen in Fig. 7, Case 4 (low traffic–strong subgrade) is
the most ideal case in this study followed by Case 3 (low
traffic–weak subgrade) then Case 1 (high traffic–strong
subgrade) and finally comes Case 2 (high traffic–weak
subgrade) as the worst case. This indicates close agreement
between the AASHTO 1993 design method and MEPDG-
predicted performance for the low traffic and strong sub-
grade relative to the rutting distress. For this case, only the
section at Aswan failed the rutting but very close to the end
of the service life. All other cases failed the rutting distress
at all three climatic locations. This important observation
may lead to the conclusion that it is not only the thickness
of the asphalt layers which affects the AC rutting, but also
the quality of the HMA mixture (mix aggregate quality,
bitumen properties, stiffness of the mix, mix air voids, etc.)
is a very important factor for resisting the AC rutting.
Moreover, results showed that rutting distresses accumu-
lated successively exceeding the threshold value within the
initial stages of the design life in all performed runs, except
the case of low traffic and strong subgrade in Alexandria
climate. This observation supports the actual field perfor-
mance of the majority of rural arterial roads in Egypt which
suffers from rutting failure. In Egypt, the combination of
the high temperature and heavy traffic load leads to major
rutting distresses.
Figure 8 shows that longitudinal cracking failed in two
cases, strong subgrade with either high or low traffic and
did not fail at weak subgrade under high or low traffic. In
the case of alligator cracking as shown in Fig. 9, all
designed pavements did not fail at all cases. Figure 10 for
IRI shows that all cases succeeded except the case of high
traffic with weak subgrade and high traffic with strong
subgrade in the case of Aswan city.
In all the above cases, it should be noted that, the dif-
ference between the maximum and minimum distresses is
the result of different traffic, subgrade strength as well as
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Table 5 MEPDG input parameters for the four cases

Input Value

Major traffic inputs

Design life, years 20
Speed, mph (km/h) 45 (72)
Case condition High traffic and strong High traffic and weak Low traffic and weak Low traffic and strong
subgrade subgrade subgrade subgrade
AADTT (design lane) 3000 250
HMA properties
Binder type Pen 60/70
HAC1 HAC2 HAC3 HAC1 HAC2 HAC3 HAC1 HAC2 HAC3 HAC1 HAC2 HAC3
Thickness (cm) (6) (7) (8) (6) (7) (8) (4) (5) (5) (4) (5) (5)
Cumulative, % retained 3/4’’ sieve 11.7 18.1 18.1 11.7 18.1 18.1 11.7 18.1 18.1 11.7 18.1 18.1
Cumulative, % retained 3/8’’ sieve 23.7 35.7 35.7 23.7 35.7 35.7 23.7 35.7 35.7 23.7 35.7 35.7
Cumulative, % retained #4 sieve 49.7 69.1 69.1 49.7 69.1 69.1 49.7 69.1 69.1 49.7 69.1 69.1
% Passing #200 sieve 4.2 1.2 1.2 4.2 1.2 1.2 4.2 1.2 1.2 4.2 1.2 1.2
% Effective binder content (by volume) 11.0 10.2 10.2 11.0 10.2 10.2 11.0 10.2 10.2 11.0 10.2 10.2
% Initial mix air voids 7 8 8 7 8 8 7 8 8 7 8 8
Unbound granular base course properties
Material type A-1-a A-1-a A-1-a A-1-a
Thickness (cm) HGB
(15) (50) (40) (15)
Mr, psi(MPa) 42,205 (290)
CBR, % 80
Plasticity Index, PI 1
Liquid Limit (LL) 6
Passing #200 sieve (%) 11.5
Passing #40 sieve (%) 24.2
Passing #10 sieve (%) 41.2
Passing #4 sieve (%) 58.9
00
3/8 67.5
3/400 85.1
100 97
1 1/200 100
Subgrade properties
Material type A-1-b A-4 A-4 A-1-b
Mr, psi (MPa) 22,529 (155) 7157 (50) 7157 (50) 22,529 (155)
CBR, % 30 5 5 30
Plasticity Index, PI: 1 10 10 1
Liquid Limit (LL) 25.7 26 26 25.7
#200 0.3 50 50 0.3
#40 18.6 72 72 18.6
#10 87.9 83 83 87.9
#4 97.3 85 85 97.3
3/800 100 94 94 100
GWT depth, ft (m) 10 (3)

the climatic factors. Pavements located in a very hot to hot temperature zones (Alexandria). The AASHTO 1993
climates (Aswan and Cairo) consistently exhibited inferior design method may not be accurate for designing pavement
performance compared to sections located in moderate- sections at locations having warmer temperatures. This

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Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. (2017)2:18 Page 7 of 9 18

Table 6 Comparison of pavement distresses predicted by MEPDG method for different traffic levels and subgrade strength
Pavement distresses Pavement case Distress predicted by Time of failure (months) Allowable distress limit
MEPDG at the end
of 20 year analysis
period and 90%
reliability

Total rutting (cm) Case 1: high traffic–strong subgrade Alexandria 2.77 108 (1.90)
Cairo 3.97 45
Aswan 4.87 31
Case 2: high traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 3.63 35
Cairo 4.79 14
Aswan 5.71 10
Case 3: low traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 2.26 142
Cairo 2.62 92
Aswan 2.93 69
Case 4: low traffic–strong subgrade Alexandria 1.38 [240
Cairo 1.81 [240
Aswan 2.13 190
IRI (m/km) Case 1: high traffic–strong subgrade Alexandria 2.38 [240 (2.71)
Cairo 2.65 [240
Aswan 2.83 216
Case 2: high traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 2.82 219
Cairo 3.07 171
Aswan 3.24 141
Case 3: low traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 2.44 [240
Cairo 2.49 [240
Aswan 2.51 [240
Case 4: low traffic–strong subgrade Alexandria 2.00 [240
Cairo 2.07 [240
Aswan 2.09 [240
Longitudinal cracking (m/km) Case 1: high traffic–strong Subgrade Alexandria 1008.97 31 (378.79)
Cairo 1112.12 24
Aswan 1209.27 19
Case 2: high traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 52.34 [240
Cairo 84.46 [240
Aswan 186.03 [240
Case 3: low traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 53.24 [240
Cairo 53.33 [240
Aswan 53.58 [240
Case 4: low traffic–strong subgrade Alexandria 597.90 96
Cairo 585.01 102
Aswan 583.06 103
Alligator cracking (%) Case 1: high traffic–strong subgrade Alexandria 19.39 [240 25
Cairo 20.89 [240
Aswan 21.52 [240
Case 2: high traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 20.50 [240
Cairo 20.55 [240
Aswan 20.77 [240
Case 3: low traffic–weak subgrade Alexandria 10.93 [240
Cairo 10.34 [240
Aswan 10.73 [240
Case 4: low traffic–strong subgrade Alexandria 9.04 [240
Cairo 11.03 [240
Aswan 12.58 [240

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6.0 250
High Traffic- High Traffic-
Alexandria
Strong Subgrade Weak subgrade
5.0 200
Total Rutting (cm)

Cairo

Total Rutting Normalized

4.0 150 Aswan

Difference (%)
3.0
100 Low Traffic- Low Traffic-
Alexandria
2.0 Cairo Weak Subgrade Strong Subgrade
50
1.0 Aswan
Total Rutting Design Limit 0
0.0
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 -50
Pavement Age (months)
-100
Pavement Design Case
Fig. 3 MEPDG-predicted rutting for the case of high traffic and
weak subgrade Fig. 7 Normalized differences for total rutting versus pavement
design case

500 250
Longitudinal Cracking

400 Alexandria
200

Normalized Difference (%)

Alexandria Cairo

Longitudinal Cracking
300 Cairo 150
(m/km)

Aswan
Aswan
200 Longitudinal Cracking Design Limit
100
100
50 High Traffic- Low Traffic-
0
Weak subgrade Weak Subgrade
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 0
High Traffic- Low Traffic-
Pavement Age (month) Strong Subgrade Strong Subgrade
-50

Fig. 4 MEPDG-predicted longitudinal cracking for the case of high -100

Pavement Design Case
traffic and weak subgrade
Fig. 8 Normalized differences for longitudinal cracking versus
pavement design case
30
Alligator Cracking (%)

25 250
Alligator Cracking Normalized

20 Alexandria Alexandria
Cairo 200
15 Cairo
Aswan
Difference (%)

Alligator Cracking Design Limit

150 Aswan
10
5 100
0 50 High Traffic- High Traffic- Low Traffic- Low Traffic-
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 Strong Subgrade Weak subgrade Weak Subgrade Strong Subgrade
Pavement Age (months) 0

-50
Fig. 5 MEPDG-predicted alligator cracking for the case of high -100
traffic and weak subgrade Pavement Design Case

Fig. 9 Normalized differences for alligator cracking versus pavement

3.5 design case
3.0
IRI (m/km)

2.5 30
Alexandria
IRI Normalized Difference (%)

2.0 Alexandria 20 Cairo

Cairo
1.5 Aswan Aswan
IRI Design Limit 10 High Traffic-
Strong Subgrade Low Traffic- Low Traffic-
1.0 Weak Subgrade Strong Subgrade
0 24 48 72 96 120 144 168 192 216 240 0
High Traffic-
Pavement Age (months) Weak subgrade
-10

Fig. 6 MEPDG-predicted IRI for the case of high traffic and weak -20
subgrade
-30
Pavement Design Case
means, the AASHTO 1993 designs are not accurate for the
Egyptian region which has a warm to hot temperature Fig. 10 Normalized differences for IRI versus pavement design case
conditions at least for the three investigated locations.
Another important note is that, the AASHTO 1993 design Conclusions
method maybe less reliable for designing pavement sec-
tions exposed to high traffic levels, since the traffic level The comparative analysis of AASHTO 1993 design guide
applied during the AASHO Road Test was a little less than and MEPDG study revealed the following:
2 million ESALs.

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Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. (2017)2:18
• Almost all studied pavement sections failed the relia-
bility criterion associated with total rutting. On the
other hand, all pavement sections did not fail the
reliability criterion associated with alligator cracking.
This concludes that the predominant pavement distress
in Egypt is rutting rather than alligator fatigue cracking.
• Pavements located in a very hot to warm climates (such
as Cairo and Aswan) consistently exhibited inferior
performance compared to sections located in moderate-
temperature zones (such as Alexandria).
• Although all pavement sections in this study were
designed with the AASHTO 1993 method for the same
serviceability loss, they exhibited different performance
as predicted by MEPDG.
• The variation of MEPDG-predicted performance with
reference to the AASHTO 1993 increased with the
growth in traffic level and reduction in the subgrade
strength for different climatic locations. Use of
MEPDG to predict performance showed that rutting
distresses accumulated successively exceeding the
threshold value within the initial stages of the design
life in all performed runs, except the case of low
traffic and strong subgrade in Alexandria climate.
This observation supports the actual field perfor-
mance of the majority of rural arterial roads in
Egypt.
• Climatic condition has a significant effect on distress
occurrence and time to failure, especially the AC
rutting.
Limitations
This study was conducted on typical pavement structure
used in the construction of roads in Egypt. Typical
properties of the pavement layers as well as traffic
loading and characteristics were used for the compar-
ison between both design methodologies. This was done
because it was very difficult to obtain accurate field
performance of in-place pavement sections as well as
all relevant data required as inputs for both design
methods. It is recommended for future research to
obtain accurate field performance data and conduct this
comparison.
Page 9 of 9 18
References
1. Elfino M, Harikrishnan N, Gudimetta J, Crawford G (2010)
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