Chilean structural design guide for low-volume roads.

The practical and theoretical principles used for development of the Chilean Structural Design Guide for Low-Volume Roads 2002 and the guide's conceptual model and hypotheses are presented. The design guide is a simplified methodology for selection of different pavement structure alternatives for a variety of conditions (traffic, soil support capacity, and climate). The design guide provides solutions for four traffic ranges, six ranges of soil support capacity, and three climate conditions (dry, normal, and saturated). The design charts contain more than 150 solutions. Pavement structural design was solved by mechanistic analysis with the BISAR computer program and fatigue models developed in South Africa. The design guide may be considered an engineering application with up-to-date research tools and results. This paper is also available on CD-ROM (see C 30152 CD-ROM).