A review and evaluation of existing rigid pavement overlay design procedures, including the ARE procedure (DOT-FH-11-8544) resulted in a fully computerized rational method for the design of overlays for rigid pavements. The OAR procedure has been applied to several pavements in different parts of the U.S. with excellent correlation in performance prediction. Data input to the program is simple and fast, and the report contains instructions on development of input data with a minimum of testing.

Fatigue cracking and reflection cracking criteria were developed and incorporated into a design procedure for flexible and rigid overlays of rigid pavements. Linear elastic layered theory is the basic model used to compute stresses and strains in the pavement system, which are then input to the fatigue and reflection cracking models. The fatigue criteria developments resulted from analyses of the performance of rigid pavements at the AASHO Road Test.