The objective of this study is to assess the impact of climate on the performance of bituminous pavements with two different methods, and then to examine their impact on actual design scenarios. Three climate cases were selected for the comparisons involving the effect of temperature: one in France (Bordeaux) and two in the United States (Seattle and Phoenix). The case of an experimental site in Québec was also used for comparisons concerning consideration for seasonal variations in ground bearing capacity. The analyses used two mechanistic-empirical approaches: the French method (NF P98-086 standard, LCPC-SETRA 1994 handbook, and the Alizé-LCPC software package) and the US method (NCHRP 2004 guide, AASHTO 2015 manual of practice, and the AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design software package). The results of the study highlight the importance, for design purposes, of the empirical fatigue equations as a function of temperature. For the site studied in France, the design results in terms of AC base layer thicknesses indicate that both methods show a similar trend with an increase in temperature. For the site in Québec, which is submitted to severe freeze/thaw cycles, the results show that taking temperature and moisture into account for unbound materials leads to a prediction of more severe permanent deformation.

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