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Caltrans > Pavement > Office of Pavement Engineering > About the Office of Pavement Engineering
 

About the Office of Pavement Engineering

Purpose

The Office of Pavement Engineering was established to develop, evaluate, and implement specification, test methods, guidance, and standards for the design, construction, and maintenance of pavements.

The Caltrans Pavement Program Steering Committee (PPSC) and the Pavement Standards Team (PST) give guidance on pavement work being performed within the Department.

Objectives

The objective of the Office of Pavement Engineering is to develop, evaluate, implement, and support quality standards, policies, procedures, and practices that improve pavement performance.

Priorities

The Caltrans Pavement Program Steering Committee (PPSC) and the Pavement Standards Team (PST) establish priorities for statewide pavement issues within the Department.

  • Smoother Pavement Project In a 2002 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) survey, road condition was cited as the public’s number one criteria for satisfaction.  Other national surveys of road users list smooth pavement as a top highway characteristic. Rough or uneven pavement adversely affects driver safety, fuel efficiency, ride quality, vehicle wear-and-tear, and pavement durability. The Office of Pavement Engineering is working with the Materials Lab in promoting smoother pavements and improving design guidance and construction specifications to achieve smoother pavements.
  • Quieter Pavement Project Quieter pavement is a new concept intended to reduce the impacts that tire/pavement noise has on the highway environment. The goal of Caltrans Quieter Pavement Project is to identify and provide the surface treatments, materials, and construction methods that will result in an ever quieter roadway that is also safe, durable, and cost-effective. The Office of Pavement Engineering is the lead statewide for this effort and is working with a team that includes Caltrans Environmental, Materials Lab, Maintenance, and industry groups in researching and establishing both the noise levels of pavements and how long these noise levels can be maintained.
  • Life-Cycle Cost Analysis Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is a project evaluation technique that compares the economic impacts of different alternatives over a given analysis period. The Department is expanding the use of LCCA to assure that the public is getting the best use of their money. The Office of Pavement Engineering has developed a procedures manual and is providing training to assure LCCA are accurate, consistent, objective, and can be done in little time.
  • Maintains Manuals & Guides
    Pavement manuals provide instruction on best practices and quality standards that provide the basis of assuring projects meet Department goals for pavements. Guides provide supplemental information and recommendations for how to meet requirements in the standards manuals. Manuals and Guides developed by the Office include:
    • The Highway Design Manual Chapter 600 to 670 - Standards manual for pavement engineering in the Department
    • Design Information Bulletins - Interim instructions that are subsequently incorporated into the Highway Design Manual)
    • Technical Guides and Notes - "How to" and best practice instructions used to educate designers on most recent information.
     The Office of Pavement Engineering has revamped the Highway Design Manual chapters on Pavement Engineering to make them easier to follow and more consistent in format. Concrete design tables have been updated to address the different climates in California. Rehab design has been added to the Manual. The Office is also working on revising the methodology for designing pavements to a new system known as Mechanistic-Empirical which provides more accurate and cost effective designs and is being adopted nationally. The Office also develops and provides training to state personnel and some outside entities on latest practices related to pavement engineering.
  • Standard Plans Standard plans provide consistent details for state pavements for designers and contractors to use when designing and building pavements. Standard plans help reduce the chances of errors and omissions in contract plans and reduce the time needed by designers and detailers to develop details for individual projects. Since 2003, the Office of Pavement Engineering has greatly expanded the number of standard plans from 4 to nearly 20 and has produced other suggested plan details for pavement tapers and shoulder backing.
  • Independent Assurance
    Independent assurance provides feed back into the value and effective of statewide policies and guidance related to pavements in order to determine areas of focus for future improvements. The Office of Pavement Engineering periodically reviews the effectiveness and application of pavement standards, guidance, and details in each District to assure the guidance is meeting Department goals, is being applied as intended, and is complete.