A Revision of the Flexible Pavement Design Method of the City and County of Honolulu

Abstract

Roads and highways are vital for the welfare, economy, and way of life of our nation. They are the primary routes of automobiles and trucks, two of the four major classes of land based transportation systems (the other two are railroads and pipelines). In the United States, automobiles are the most important means of passenger travel and, in fact, account for more than four-fifths of all the miles traveled by Americans today.1 Trucks, with their great mobility and ability to carry heavy loads are crucial to practically every type of industry. Statistically, they transport 25 percent of all the freight in our country.2 Other methods of transportation that utilize roads and highways include buses, motorcycles, motorscooters, and bicycles. Throughout America there are approximately 3,700,000 miles of surfaced and unsurfaced streets, roads, and highways.3 Quite understandably, billions of dollars are spent yearly for the building of new roads and the maintaining of existing ones ($21,652,000,000 in 1972).4 Although tremendously costly, these expenses are well justified because without a good system of well designed roads the proficiency of the highly essential automobile, truck, and various other land-based modes of transportation would be extremely retarded.