Figure 30: The grouping of PennDOT regional offices with similar climate conditions. (PennDOT, 2021) 6.1.2 Case 2: Changing Construction Month Case 2 shows the effect of changing the construction month, in this case from May to October. On average, October is a colder month than May which can significantly slow the heat of hydration in concrete, reducing the rate of strength gain. In this simulation, cracking and dowel bar performance reliability and ESAL repetitions are 95.7%, 59.8%, and 1419, respectively. There is a significant difference for each of these values when compared to the same pavement constructed in May. The cracking performance increases accounting for the increase in stiffness due to the colder weather while the dowel bar performance reliability decreases and ESAL repetitions increase to account for the slow rate of strength gain. 6.1.3 Case 3: Changing Traffic Pattern Case 3 shows the effect of changing the traffic pattern, in this case from Minor Arterial to Residential. This input controls the amount and size of vehicles traveling on the pavement. A decrease in traffic of 415 ESALs is caused by the user changing the traffic pattern from Minor Arterial to Residential. In this simulation, cracking and dowel bar performance reliability are 99.1% and 99.9%, respectively. The large increase from the original example shows that allowing lighter weight traffic early is beneficial to lower congestion while maintaining pavement performance reliability. Changing the allowable traffic to achieve this reliability is a viable method for reducing the user cost of any road type including interstates and minor arterials.
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