Welcome back to the AASHTOWare Pavement e-Newsletter! We look forward to keeping you up to date on Pavement ME Design news, and we encourage you to  send us suggestions for articles to be included in upcoming editions of the newsletter. We plan to publish a newsletter each quarter. Enjoy!

Thank You Marta Juhasz, Alberta Transportation, Vice Chair

After 8 years on the Pavement ME Design Task Force Marta is stepping down from her role as vice chair and as a Task Force member. Marta received her plaque at the March meeting in San Antonio, TX. Vicki Schofield and the Pavement ME Design team extends a special thank you to Marta, as well as to all previous members that have served on the Pavement ME Design Task Force.

Task Force Members John Donahue, P.E., Missouri DOT, Chairperson Patrick Bierl, P.E., Ohio DOT Felix Doucet, Eng., Quebec MOT, David Holmgren, P.E. Utah DOT Clark Morrison, P.E., North Carolina DOT, Vice Chair Robert Shugart, P.E., Alabama DOT Karen Strauss, P.E Oregon DOT Travis Tackett, Florida DOT, T&AA Liaison Tom Yu, P.E., FHWA Liaison Vicki Schofield, AASHTO Project Manager ARA Help Desk Please send any questions or issues related to using the software to the ME Design website , contact the Help Desk Manager, Shobhit Mundra , or call 1-217-356-4500.   Other ARA Staff: Chadwick Becker , ARA Co-Project Manager Harold Von Quintus, P.E., ARA, Project Manager Wouter Brink ARA Engineering Support

Local Calibration Tool Update As mentioned in the previous newsletter, many agencies have requested more detailed support to assist in the local calibration of the Pavement ME Design transfer functions for predicting distress and performance. The development team is making significant progress towards developing the AASHTOWare Calibration tool. The team is now focusing on the calibration database integration and the optimization process and execution. Beta testing of the tool is scheduled to begin around July. Beta Testers for the Calibration Tool! Thank you to those who have volunteered to be beta testers for the AASHTOWare Calibration tool! We will be contacting you soon to start the process once the final alpha testing is completed. As a reminder, a very important part of the AASHTOWare process for maintaining and keeping their software packages without issues is testing all revisions, changes, and new enhancements prior to its release. Just like the Backcalculation Tool, the Calibration tool will be beta tested. It is not too late to volunteer to participate in that beta testing process. If you and/or your agency have an interest in being one of the first to use the Calibrator, please contact Wouter Brink, 217-356-4500; or the ARA Help Desk, 217-356-4500.  Web-Based Technology Version Moving Forward!  The evolution of the analysis modules for the web technology application has been completed. This process was critical for executing and maintaining the application in a web technology environment and removes the inherent analysis dependencies on the file system. The evolved modules will be available for use in July as part of the v2.5.5 release. The WTA team will next focus on the behavioral refactoring as it prepares the Pavement ME Design software platform for its move to the web.

Update on Top-Down Cracking  NCHRP project 1-52 was completed last year and the report and accompanying software delivered to AASHTOWare earlier this year. Integration of the model into Pavement ME Design got rolling near the end of last year. The integration of the NCHRP 1-52 model into Pavement ME Design is expected to be complete around October 2019. The Pavement ME Design team will continue to advise the users on the expected schedule integration completion date. For those concerned users regarding a recalibration of the bottom-up fatigue cracking transfer function with this enhancement, early analysis of the TDC software suggests the calibration of the bottom-up fatigue cracking transfer function will NOT be required.

Future Software Needs and Enhancements  As a friendly reminder, the Pavement ME Design Task Force is continually taking action to improve the software and welcomes suggestions from users. Suggestions are reviewed and prioritized at each Pavement ME Design Task Force meeting. Submit suggestions to  Vicki Schofield  or any Pavement ME Design Task Force member. Feature ideas may now also be submitted through the Pavement ME Design website . Service Units Available for Purchase and Use! Service units are available for purchase through AASHTO for implementing and using the Pavement ME Design software package. Many state agencies have already purchased several service units, and these agencies can c ontact AASHTO to redeem them for implementation support.  

Reminders and Tidbits We want to remind you that there are many resources related to all aspects of Pavement ME Design. A significant amount of research has been conducted in relation to the software and we want to highlight some of these. The MEPDG Clearinghouse is a great resource to see what research has been done by state highway agencies for implementing the Pavement ME Design. Some topics include, local calibration, input characterization, laboratory testing, traffic input collection and many, many, more. Please visit the ME Clearing house website to learn about the research that has been completed in recent years. A 3-day Theory and Applications workshop was held near Harrisburg, PA to train consulting and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation engineers on the Pavement ME Design software. The workshop had 19 participants that were able to gain some valuable hands-on experience using the software by going through detailed design examples. A more advanced workshop on the use of the Pavement ME Design software is scheduled for next fiscal year. Another 3-day application workshop is scheduled in July in Boise, Idaho. As a reminder, service units can be used for training workshops that are tailored to your specific needs and practices.  

International Group Meeting Scheduled Prior to TRB Meeting The second annual Pavement ME international workshop was held on January 12th, 2019 in Washington, D.C. The goal of the 1-day workshop was to provide international pavement engineers an opportunity to learn more about the Pavement ME Design capabilities and how it may assist their needs. The workshop was well received and the discussions were engaging and informative for the presenters and the participants. The topics of discussion included, recent updates, climate data, calibration, and more.

Discussion Forum Please note that the pavement engineering discussion forum is no longer available for through the AllAnswered website. A new discussion forum location was established at www.engineering.stackexchange.com . The software maintenance team will be moving the existing Q&A over to the new site. If you have questions, please post them on the new site with the “pavement” tag. ARA suggests posting any pavement engineering and/or Pavement ME Design questions on the site. This forum is for civil engineers interested in pavement design and provides a global community discussion for pavement design. The AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design Product Task Force (PMEDTF) provides broad oversight and direction for the support, maintenance and enhancement of the software. AASHTOWare tries maintain a balance of members from across the country to represent the diverse climate and soil conditions. For further information about the Pavement ME Design Product Task Force, please contact Vicki Schofield , Project Manager | 202.624.3640.