referential to abstract: ... Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight (TS&W) Study; Phase 1—Synthesis; Working Paper 3—Pavements and TS&W Regulations; category 1 section 2 paragraph (a). [abridged]
1.2 Truck Characteristics Affecting Pavements
(a) Axle Weights
Load equivalence factors measure the relative effects of different types of loadings on pavements. Pavement engineers generally use the concept of an equivalent single-axle load (ESAL) to measure the effects of axle loads on pavement. By convention, an 18,000-pound single axle is 1.00 ESAL. The ESAL values for other axles express their effect on pavement wear relative to the 18,000-pound single axle. Stating, for example, that a given vehicle on a given type of pavement is 3.0 ESALs means that one pass by the vehicle has the same effect on the pavement as three passes by an 18,000-pound single axle.

 The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) Road Test conducted in the 1950s provided sets of ESAL values for single and tandem axles on various types of pavements. In 1986, the Road Test results were extended by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) to provide load-equivalence factors for tridem axles (AASHTO 1986). The load-equivalence factors vary sharply with weight, following roughly a fourth-power relationship. On both flexible and rigid pavements, the load-equivalence factor for a 20,000-pound single axle is about 1.5 because (20/18) 4 is approximately equal to 1.5. Thus, 100 passes across a pavement by a 20,000-pound axle would have the same effect on pavement life as 150 passes by an 18,000-pound axle.

AASHTO provides separate sets of ESAL values for flexible and rigid pavements. The principal difference between the flexible and rigid pavement ESAL values is that tandem axles were found to have a greater effect on rigid pavements (Exhibit 1 Axle load effects on pavements: top, flexible pavements). For example, a 34,000-pound tandem axle is about 1.1 ESALs on flexible pavement and about 2.0 ESALs on rigid pavements.
[ed. note / relevant statement: the significance of the above means that:
  (i)  concrete pavement surfaces decay + deconstruct more rapidly than do asphalt pavement surfacing,
 (ii) when they are exposed to identical t-indexes, traffic patterns, sizes and frequencies.

In other words:
"When all other factors are the same,
asphalt will last approximately 82% longer than will concrete pavement surfacing."

this study does not address: WHY the above is true, only that it is true ...
relatively more flexible pavement surfaces last longer than do rigid pavements.

definition of terms: in this UsDOT/FHWA (TS&W) study, the term 'rigid pavements' refers to concrete vehicular traffic driving surfaces, the term 'flexible pavements' refers to asphalt driving surfaces.

please note also:  that when this study refers to 'the pavement' it is referring to the smoothe driving surface applied as the finish surfacing - on top of the pavement; i.e. the thin layer of asphalt or concrete.

more correctly: in pavement engineering and/or geotechnical fields, typically the term 'the pavement' more accurately is defined as: the entire engineered structure; which chiefly consists of the roadbed foundation, +various layers of drain rock, compacted composite aggregates, leveling or 'choker' layers, and so forth beneath the finish surfacing.
The asphalt or concrete surfacing, although serving the purpose of diverting rainfall into sheetwater runoff by preventing precipitation infiltrating into the roadbed, should be more correctly understood as 'the surface finishing' than as the pavement itself.
analogy - 1 | for the purpose of illustration: This is similar to the term 'the building' refering to much more than simply the coat of paint applied to the exterior of a newly constructed built environment.
relevance to actual/real pavement costs: Please note that it does not cost upwards of $10million/mile and more, simply to lay a coat of concrete or asphalt on an interstate highway; rather the asphalt or concrete "pavers" would be similar to the house painters, who are called in to finish the house exterior - after the house "has been built." ~m.a.r.]
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