PARTNERED PAVEMENT RESEARCH CENTER  

 

Brief Description:

In operation since 1993, the Partnered Pavement Research Center (PPRC)  was started as the Caltrans

Accelerated Pavement Testing (CAL/APT) program in what was then the University of California Berkeley

Institute of Transportation Studies Bituminous Materials Laboratory in Richmond, California.

The research group was also a major participant in the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) from

1989 to 1992.  The program was renamed the Partnered Pavement Research Center in 2000, to reflect a
broader range of research partners and pavement-related research areas, while maintaining a core accelerated

pavement testing component.  The expanded research areas include construction productivity, construction
work zone traffic behavior, pavement management and construction contracting.  In 2002, the PPRC expanded

to the Davis campus of the University of California, and the PPRC now operates as a two-campus
organization under joint leadership.

 

Since 1995, the PPRC, with funding and direction from the California Department of Transportation

(Caltrans) and in cooperation with Dynatest Consulting, Inc., of Ojai, California and the CSIR of

South Africa, has run a fully-functional accelerated pavement testing (APT) facility with
two South Africa-produced Heavy Vehicle Simulators. The HVS machines are mobile and test

pavements at the PPRC facilities as well as on mainline highways.

The APT program is augmented by a full complement of laboratory testing and validation equipment and

staff with expertise in asphalt concrete, portland cement concrete and soils.  The PPRC also has field

testing capabilities including Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD), Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP),

nuclear gauge, and coring equipment.  The PPRC performs extensive field investigation work.  All APT

and laboratory results are stored in a relational database for future access and analysis, and are currently

being used for calibration of mechanistic-empirical design procedures.  Field sites for both flexible and rigid
pavements are often instrumented and monitored to augment and extrapolate APT results throughout California.

Links to Facility's:      Website         Publications page
 

Back to Top

Last Updated:
February 28, 2005