The ASCE Port and Intermodal Yard Pavement Design Guide

The ASCE Ports and Harbors Committee has embarked upon the development of a pavement design guide tailored for the intensive loading conditions encountered in container terminals and intermodal yards. The guide is intended to provide a comprehensive reference of alternative design procedures and material options available to the engineer undertaking the design of the pavements for such a facility. This paper will present a synopsis of the design guide, including the rational for the application of existing tools available to the user. The paper will include a description of the sections in the guide. These include container handling equipment and operations, flexible pavement design, rigid pavement design and subgrade improvement. The section on container handling equipment and terminal operations will discuss the various types of equipment and their mode of operation, including the development of the design wheel load and determination of the design repetitions. It will clarify the position that the maximum wheel load is rarely appropriate for design, as it hardly ever occurs in practice. The section on flexible pavements will describe the use of layered elastic design methods and provide a description of potential materials and their properties. The rigid pavement section will be similar, but considers finite element design techniques. Both of these sections will include details of the response of the materials to the imposed loadings and other operational factors. In addition to providing default values for the elastic properties of materials, guidance will be given for more project specific determination. The final section on subgrade improvement will describe shallow modification of subgrade and fill materials for use in the lower layers of the pavement structure, and describe deep-seated improvement as it affects the performance of the pavements.