Full-scale accelerated pavement testing with the MLS30 on innovative testing infrastructures

Abstract

Germany is one of the most important networks to cope the commercial transport on the continent due to its central geographic position in Europe. Therefore, there is a need for the assessment of innovations in pavement design and construction materials. Full-scale accelerated pavement tests (APT) are one of the most powerful tools to close the gap between laboratory testing and in situ tests under real traffic loads. Therefore, the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) decided to get an APT device Pave®MLS30, which loads test sections with a rolling wheel. Several initial projects have been successfully completed. In 2016, the construction of the new testing and reference areal duraBASt will be completed. duraBASt is located inside of a large motorway cross section. Together with the available indoor testing facilities and the access to other test areas then high-standard full-scale testing infrastructures for answering a broad portfolio of different research questions on pavement engineering will be available.