A history of full-scale accelerated pavement testing facilities to 1962

In 1996, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) published a synthesis of the full-scale accelerated pavement testing (APT) facilities known to have been developed throughout the world since the AASHO Road Test, which was conducted between 1958 and 1962. It was realised that several APT facilities had been in operation prior to that time. However, for the purposes of the Synthesis details of these facilities were not included. The purpose of this paper is to document these earlier facilities in order that the information not published in the NCHRP Synthesis can be placed in the public domain. Whilst this paper represents a substantially complete record of the development of APT facilities in the years prior to the 1960s, some facilities were identified where details are either non-existent or very limited.