9.5 Pavement Design for Shoulders
Paved shoulders resist erosion and debris generation from the jet blast, which can cause erosion of
unprotected soil immediately adjacent to airfield pavements. The shoulder must be capable of safely
supporting the occasional passage of most airplanes as well as emergency and maintenance vehicles.
Paved shoulders are required for runways, taxiways, taxilanes, and aprons accommodating Airplane
Design Group (ADG) IV and higher.
Shoulder pavement thickness is determined using the FAARFIELD design software. Because the
pavement is not intended to carry regular aircraft traffic, a complete traffic mixture is not considered.
Instead, the airplane requiring the thickest pavement section is used to determine the pavement
shoulder thickness.; which is (A380-800).
The thickness of the shoulders' pavement is 379 mm (rounded to 400 mm ) as shown in Figure 9-7.
Figure 9 - 7 Pavement Design for Shoulder......................................................................
- Note:
If the shoulder is adjacent to rigid pavement, then PCC is used with a minimum design flexural
strength of 600 psi (4.14 MPa).