On behalf of the Portland Cement Association (PCA), National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) (and its affiliate the RMC Research and Education Foundation), and the RCC Pavement Council, the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) is pleased to announce the launch of a web-based concrete pavement design solution. ACPA anticipates PavementDesigner.org will dramatically change the concrete pavement design culture and current practices for streets, parking lots, industrial pavements, and other facilities.
PavementDesigner website is free of charge and was created for city, county, and consultant engineers, academia, or anyone involved in design of roadway, industrial, and parking area pavements.
“ACPA was excited to serve as the project leader for PavementDesigner, working closely with our industry partners and our software designer. [This] represents a dramatic shift in solutions availability to designers of streets, roads, parking lots, and industrial facilities,” said project leader Eric Ferrebee, EIT, Director of Technical Services-ACPA. “By bringing multiple programs together in one package and eliminating the cost and time to download software, updates, and patches, we have removed barriers and enabled designers to select the best option for pavement designs.”
PavementDesigner improves upon traditional pavement design software programs, and provides the following value-added features:
- No cost
- Immediate access—The platform brings the industry’s best pavement design programs together into a single website that allows professionals to design pavements immediately
- Cloud storage/retrieval—Users have the option of creating a user ID and password to save their design work, as well as to retrieve projects using any digital device.
- Automatic updates and improvements—The online system is automatically updated when new content or details are added. Users will not have to download updated software or “patches.”
“The easy-to-use pavement design tool not only covers full-depth concrete, but also provides design solutions for concrete overlays and composite pavements,” explains Wayne Adaska, P.E., Director of Pavements-PCA. “Further, the tool includes other cement-based materials like roller-compacted concrete, cement-treated base and full-depth reclamation with cement.”
The program guides users through three basic stages:
• Project type (parking, street, or intermodal facility
• Project level details
• Pavement structure design
Each module has “help” screens and conversions to assist pavement structure detail entry. After data is entered and calculated, the user moves to a summary screen where slab design can be reviewed, analyzed, printed, and/or saved. The portal also includes helpful resources, which are readily available from the sidebar:
• PavementDesigner introductory video
• Platform’s map and methodology visual that shows solutions and a process flow
• Video that shows how to use the portal to design a jointed plain concrete pavement
• Resource section that includes details from drawings of various concrete pavement structures, images, descriptions, and weblinks to other resources and tools designed to assist pavement designers and others in gaining more insights about specific types and applications for concrete pavements.
Brian Killingsworth, P.E, NRMCA Executive Vice President of Local Paving stated, “PavementDesigner presents a unique experience which logically steps the [user] through the pavement design process. Experience and functionality of the website were foremost in our minds throughout the development. Couple that with state-of-the-art technical methods and reporting and the user will find the design process to be exceptional.”
Additional training and support materials will be added as feedback is received. Please explore the site and share this news with colleagues, affiliates, and others in the concrete pavement industry.
For the PavementDesigner website, please go to: https://pavementdesigner.org
For other articles on this unique new website, please go to:
Concrete Products article titled, “Concrete pavement stakeholders power cloud-enabled design platform”:
http://concreteproducts.com/news/10797-concrete-pavement-stakeholders-power-cloud-enabled-design-platform.html#.WlfFbUzMz-Y
For Construction Pros.com online Magazine article titled, “Industry Groups Introduce Web-Based Pavement Design Platform”: https://www.forconstructionpros.com/concrete/press-release/20987932/acpa-american-concrete-pavement-association-industry-groups-introduce-webbased-pavement-design-platform
Please explore the site and share this news with colleagues, affiliates, and others in the concrete pavement industry.