Chapter 2: Pavement Design Process
Anchor: #BGBBGFJJSection 1: Introduction
TxDOT spends more than 50% of the annual construction and maintenance budget on pavements. Nevertheless, because of funding limitations, only a portion of pavement-related needs can be addressed. Therefore pavements need to be properly designed using an analytical process with accurate design inputs. The objectives of the pavement design process are to provide pavements that are capable of carrying traffic loads with minimum physical deterioration, maximum safety, and maximum ride comfort.
A preliminary pavement design needs to be performed during the early phase of project development. This step ensures that pavement design is used to calculate project cost rather than project cost dictating the pavement design.