Infrastructure & Municipal Assets Division

Internal Roads & Infrastructure Directorate

Abu Dhabi Municipality

Pavement Design Guideline Requirements

Prepared By
Projects Design Section

January, 2012
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Table of Contents .................................................................................................................1

2 General.................................................................................................................................2
3 Purpose ................................................................................................................................2
4 Applicability .........................................................................................................................2
5 Design Reference Standards ................................................................................................2
6 Required Related Studies.....................................................................................................3
7 Desing Requirements. ..........................................................................................................3
8 Pavement Design Report Contents......................................................................................4
9 Quality Assurance of PavementDesing ...............................................................................6

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ADM Pavement Design Guideline Requirements

1. General

Currently, Flexible Pavements of ADM roads are designed referring to Abu Dhabi
Road Design Manual issued at 1998. Pavement design process of this manual is now
under review and update in ADM Design Section and sharing with ABU Dhabi
Department of Transportation (DoT) to produce a Unified Pavement Design Manual
for Abu Dhabi city roads and Highways, in reference to the latest AASHTO-2008,
Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guidelines, and Australian Pavement Design
Guidelines “Austroad-2009”. Until completion and issuing of the Unified Pavement
Design Guidelines to Abu Dhabi consultants, the following Pavement Design
guideline Requirements shall be followed for related projects.

2. Purpose

The main Purpose of issuing this document is to provide summarized Road Pavement
Design requirements to be fulfilled by the consultant for all road projects during the
design stage, in order to control and ensure the quality of Pavement Design and its
compliance with all relevant design reference standards and procedures.

3. Applicability

As it is expected that all related studies; Traffic, Geotechnical, Planning, Road

Classification and Conceptual Geometric Design of Roads...etc are conducted during
the Preliminary studies design phase, The following Pavement Design Guideline
Requirements are required to be fulfilled during the Preliminary Design Phase.

For tendered Projects that already under construction, and in case that there is a
need for ADM Review and Approval of a Pavement design, the Pavement Design
Report shall be reviewed in accordance with all related previously approved studies,
jointly with ADM relevant specialists, for each project case by case.

4. Design Reference Standards

• Pavement Design Reference Standards should be reviewed, discussed and

agreed with ADM Pavement Design Reviewer before starting pavement
design of a project,
• ADM Road Design Manual, 1998 in addition to AASHTO, 1993 may be utilized
as an asphalt pavement design reference (after discussion and agreement
with ADM Pavement Design Reviewer about pavement design bases and
parameters).
• Sustainability Guideline For ADM, IRI Employees And Consultants, 2010 and
its updates,

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5. Required Related Studies

• As per ADM Regulations, an Approved Geotechnical Study is a major

requirement to review and provide (No Objection) on the pavement design of
a project. The project geotechnical study is to be submitted to ADM –
Geotechnical Specialist for review and acceptance. The pavement design is to
be reviewed based on accepted geotechnical study as per the requirement
and scope defined by ADM Geotechnical Specialist.

• Traffic Study of the project area including the existing and expected ADT
(Average Daily Traffic) or PHV (Peak Hour Volume) and the traffic
classification of different traffic vehicles that expected to utilize the project
area along the pavement life (In addition to all other requirements of the
project traffic Study as required by ADM Traffic Specialist).

6. Design Requirements

• The required flexible pavement layer thickness should be based on full design
calculations and not referring to tables to estimate minimum Asphalt layer
requirement for the project. The values of minimum required asphalt layer
thickness for different road class addressed for different road classes
addressed in ADM Road Design Manual (Table 600.07) are only for guidance
and not accepted to be utilized in road Pavement Design without full design
calculation.

• The value of Structural Number (SN) in pavement design should be based on

design calculations and not referring to tables to estimate minimum SN. The
values of minimum SN for different road classes stated in ADM Road Design
Manual (Table 600.02) are only for guidance and not accepted to be utilized
in road Pavement Design without full calculation of pavement structural
number (SN).

• In case that an existing pavement to be considered in pavement design, full

pavement condition evaluation study is required to assess the current
pavement condition and recommend the required action(s) to be taken to
ensure proper utilization of the existing asphalt pavement along the project
life,

• Several pavement design options should be studied and value engineering

optimized (Technically, Financially and Environmentally) based on
sustainability criteria;

Longer Service Life,

Less overall life-cycle cost,

Less Pavement Distresses,

Easier and more sustainable Maintenance Activities,

Saving in row material, water and energy consumption,

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Studying the Utilization of Un-Traditional solutions as
(Pavement Recycling, Asphalt Mix Additives, Recycled
Materials ….) to achieve more sustainable pavement design ob
project bases, and

Easier in road constructability.

• The pavement design report (or section in an overall design report) should
fulfill the minimum standard required contents addressed in section (5);

7. Pavement Design Report Contents

7.1 Introduction,
- Project Information (Location, Area, scope, objective, etc)
- Land Use of Project area and adjacent areas,
- Road Hierarchy of roads included in project scope,
7.2 Reference Standards of Pavement Design,

7.3 Selected values of Reliability (R), Standard Deviation (S0), and Standard
normal Deviation (ZR) according to road hierarchy.

7.4 Design Geotechnical Data,

The following geotechnical data are considered as minimum requirement for

pavement design purpose. Further testing and Geo-Physical / Geotechnical
requirements that may be required by ADM Geotechnical Specialist to fulfill the
Geo-Physical / Geotechnical viewpoint should be fulfilled by the consultant.

- Summary of Approved Project Geotechnical Report Results,

- Selected value of Soil CBR,
- Water table condition, and concerned recommendations of
Geotechnical study,
- Soil MR value, and method of MR calculation,
- Geotechnical study recommendations that will be adopted in
Pavement design (if any),

7.5 Pavement Layers Material Properties,

- Mr value of Supporting Soil,
- Mr value of Pavement layers materials,
- Layer coefficient (a) for different pavement layers,
- Drainage factor of granular base course and sub-base layer.

7.6 Design Traffic Data,

- Summary of Approved Traffic Study results,
- Selected peak hour traffic volume,
- Calculated Average Daily Traffic ADT,

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 - Traffic Classification percentage of different traffic vehicle types
utilizing the project area,
- Traffic growth factor along pavement design life,
- Truck factor for different types of traffic vehicles,
- Selected Traffic Parameters, Directional Distribution factor (Dd), and
Lane Distribution factor (Ld),..etc.
- Calculation of Predicted number of ESALs equivalent single axle load
W18,

7.7 Pavement Design Calculations,

- Calculation of SN for each pavement layer,
- Calculation of Pavement layers thickness design options, and
- Selected Pavement layers thickness for different design options in the
project, showing the bases of selection,
7.8 Recommendations,
- Recommended Pavement Section(s), and
- Connecting Pavement layers with construction specifications,

7.9 After Getting No – Objection on Final Pavement Design for the Project,
the consultant is requested to submit the project pavement design data
in GIS format. The GIS format to be discussed and agreed with ADM –
Pavement Design Reviewer and ADM – GIS Specialist.

7.10 Appendices,
- Appendix (A),
i. Project Location Map,
ii. Land Use Plan (for Different land use inside the project),
iii. Road Hierarchy Plan,

- Appendix (B), Pavement Design Drawings,

i. Plan showing different pavement types,
ii. Pavement structure details for all types of pavement,
iii. Construction details, including Tie – Inn, widening, connection
details for different types of pavements, and connections
between old & new pavements,

- Appendix (C), Geotechnical Study Data,

i. Plan of boreholes and test pits locations,
ii. Soil profile including proposed design level, ground water level
and soil layers along project roads,
iii. Test results of boreholes and test pits,
iv. Recommendations regarding ground water or road pavement
structure.

- Appendix (D), Pavement Design Calculations,

i. Detailed calculations of different designed pavement sections,

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 8. Quality Assurance of Pavement Design

The attached checklist should be followed by the consultant during pavement

design of road projects as a part of pavement design quality assurance process,
and to be included in the pavement design report submitted to ADM – Design
Section for review and acceptance.

Pavement Design Checklist:

No. Item Yes No NA Remarks

1 Existence of Project Basic Information
• Project Information (Location, Area,.. )
• Land Use of Project area and adjacent areas,
• Road Hierarchy,
2 Clear Reference Standards of Pavement Design
3 Basic Input Design Data for each road class
• Selected values of Reliability (R),
• Standard Deviation (S0),
• Standard normal Deviation (ZR)
4 Input Design Traffic Data,
• Summary of Traffic Study results,
• Selected peak hour volume(s),
• Traffic Classification Percentages,
• Calculated Average Daily Traffic ADT,
• Traffic growth factor along pavement design life,
• Truck factor for different types of traffic vehicles,
• Selected Traffic Parameters, Dd, Ld, etc.
• Calculation of W18,
• Construction Traffic Volume and Truck Loading is
considered
5 Input Design Geotechnical Data,
• Project Geotechnical Report Results,
• Selected value of Soil CBR,
• Water table condition, and concerned
recommendations of Geotechnical study,
• Soil MR value, and method of MR calculation,
• Geotechnical recommendations to be adopted in
Pavement design, soil replacement, or road
construction.
6 Input Pavement Layers Material Coefficients,
• Layer coefficient (a) for different pavement layers,
• Drainage factor of granular base course and sub-base
layer.
7 Pavement Design Calculations,
• Calculation of required SN for each pavement layer ,

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 • Several Design Options,
• Is Pavement Type Selection is justified?
• Is Asphalt Layer(s) Thickness has been minimized?
• Pavement Design is Value-Engineering Optimized?
• Pavement Maintenance Type and Cost are
considered?
• Consistency of Pavement Design with Adjacent area,
• Longer Design Life or Less Pavement Thickness?
• Less Pavement Distresses are considered in Pavement
Design
• Cost saving is considered,
• Constructability of selected design is considered,
• Saving in Row Material, water and energy
consumption,
• Studying the Utilization of Un-Traditional – Sustainable
solutions as (Pavement Recycling, Asphalt Mix
Additives, Recycled Materials, Geo-synthetics ….) to
achieve more sustainable pavement design on project
bases,
8 Attached Drawings & Related Reports ;
i. General;
• Project Location Map,
• Land Use Plan (for Different land use inside the
project),
• Road Hierarchy Plan,
ii. Pavement Design Drawings,
• Plan of different pavement types,
• Pavement structure details for all types, including
details of soft soil and high water table conditions,
• Construction details, including Tie–Inn details for
different types of pavements,
iii. Geotechnical Study Data,
• Plan of boreholes and test pits locations,
• Soil profile including proposed design level, ground
water level and soil layers along project roads,
• Test results of boreholes and test pits,
• Recommendations regarding ground water or road
pavement structure.
• Detailed calculations of Pavement Design options,