ABSTRACT
The historical background of the RILEM international testing program on significant testing methods for asphalt pavements has already been given in chapter 4 when dealing with the mix design interlaboratory test. We must recall here that the test circuit of the "OECD-FORCE" project constructed at Nantes in France was a large scale experiment focused on the analysis and evaluation of flexible road structure designed according to the fatigue criteria. At the end of these experiments in 1988 it had been subjected to more than 4 million axle loads (OCDE 1991). The EMPA - Swiss Federal laboratories were then assigned the task of extracting paving pieces from the circuit for further modulus measurements and fatigue tests to be carried out in the frame of the second part of the RILEM interlaboratory test.
