Heavy vehicle simulator and accelerated pavement testing facility at Rowan University

The use of full-scale accelerated pavement testing is gaining more prominence in recent years due to (1) the several advantages such tests offer and (2) the development of portable and non-portable accelerated pavement testing equipment that facilitate conducting these tests. For instance, conducting accelerated pavement testing offers the advantage to simulate long-term traffic conditions in a short period of time that ranges between three to six months. It can also help in better simulating field conditions simply because full-scale sections are constructed using paving equipment and procedures utilized by contractors in the field. Therefore, it can be argued that full-scale accelerated pavement testing can provide results that are more representatives of field conditions that does laboratory testing. To keep up with current transportation and pavement research trends, Rowan University is currently in the process of constructing an accelerated pavement testing facility. In fact, the mission of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Rowan University is to grow the program to become one of the nationally recognized research programs in the areas of transportation and pavement engineering. To accomplish this mission, the department along with the College of Engineering at Rowan University, the State of New Jersey (NJ), and the United State Department of Defense (USDoD) have established a state-of-the-art transportation research center known as the Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering System (CREATEs). CREATEs houses an AMRL (AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory) certified Rowan University Construction Materials Laboratory (RUCOM) and the Rowan University Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility (RUAPTF). Therefore, CREATES is envisioned to provide states and local agencies as well as the pavement industry in the northeastern region of the United States (US) with both laboratory and full scale accelerated pavement testing capabilities. This paper documents the design and construction processes currently being implemented for building RUAPTF.