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We look forward to keeping you up to date on Pavement ME Design (PMED) news, and we encourage you to send us suggestions for articles to be included in upcoming editions of the newsletter. We plan to publish a newsletter each quarter. Enjoy!
Another PMED User Group meeting is planned to be held virtually on December 8 to 10. Information on the virtual meeting is being distributed by Kelly Smith (ApTech) and Linda Pierce (NCE). If you have not received the pre-meeting announcement, contact the ARA Help Desk or Kelly at klsmith@appliedpavement.com.
The webinar invitations were sent out earlier this year. The topics of the webinar were selected based on feedback from the user group meetings, and commonly asked questions. Four webinars will be held this fiscal year. The topics and dates for the first two are listed here, along with the other two that will be delivered later this year:
- Clark Morrison, P.E.,
North Carolina DOT, Chairperson - Hari Nair, P.E., Virginia DOT, Co-Chairperson
- Patrick Bierl, P.E., Ohio DOT
- Felix Doucet, Eng., Quebec MOT
- David Holmgren, P.E., Utah DOT
- Dulce Feldman, P.E. California Department of Transportation
- Kumar Dave, P.E., Indiana DOT
- Jeff Neal, P.E., Kansas DOT, SCOA Liaison
- Susanne Chan, Eng., Ontario MOT, TAC Liaison
- Tom Yu, P.E., FHWA Liaison
- Ryan Fragapane,
AASHTO Project Manager
(202) 624-3632
An enhanced version of the Backcalculation tool will be released during the first week in December and available for download. This release includes bug fixes and several new features that had been requested to improve the user experience with this tool. The release notes, software, and User Manual download can be accessed in December at https://me-design.com.
The Pavement ME Design team has delivered multiple demonstrations/webinars to different agencies in North America over the past couple of years. If your agency is interested in hosting a virtual demonstration of using the software for design, you are encouraged to contact Mr. Ryan Fragapane at rfragapane@aashto.org or 202.624.3632.
- Shobhit Mundra,
pavementmedesign@ara.com
Phone: (217) 356-4500
Other ARA Staff:
Please send any questions or issues related to using the software to the ME Design website and/or contact the Help Desk Manager, Shobhit Mundra at http://me-design.com/MEDesign/Report.aspx, via email at pavementmedesign@ara.com, or phone 1-217-356-4500.
As a friendly reminder, the Pavement ME Design Task Force is continually taking action to improve the software and welcomes suggestions from users. Suggestions are reviewed and prioritized at each Pavement ME Design Task Force meeting. Submit suggestions to Ryan Fragapane or any Pavement ME Design Task Force member. Feature ideas may now also be submitted through the Pavement ME Design website at: http://me-design.com/MEDesign/Report.aspx.
We would like to welcome Susanne Chan, Eng., with the Ontario MOT as the new Transportation Association Canada (TAC) liaison. Susanne will be replacing Tara Liske, Manitoba MOT, who previously served in this role.
We would like thank Travis Tackett with the Florida DOT, who served as the TAA liaison on the Pavement ME Design task force for his valued contributions to the Task Force as the TAA liaison. We wish him the best in his new role.
We want to remind you that there are many resources related to all aspects of Pavement ME Design. The MEPDG Clearinghouse is a great resource to see what research has been done by state highway agencies for implementing the Pavement ME Design. Some topics include local calibration, input characterization, laboratory testing, traffic input collection, and many, many, more. Please visit the ME Clearing house website to learn about the research that has been completed in recent years.
As a reminder, a new discussion forum location for PMED has been established at www.engineering.stackexchange.com. The software maintenance team has moved the existing Q&A over to the new site. If you have questions, please post them on the new site with the “pavement” tag.
Service units are available for purchase through AASHTO for implementing and using the Pavement ME Design software package. Many state agencies have already purchased several service units, and these agencies can contact AASHTO to redeem them for implementation support.
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