The district pavement engineer (DPE) is a licensed professional engineer who serves as the district point of contact for the evaluation, preservation, and structural design of pavements. This position was formalized by the department in 1993 as a district-level staff position.

The DPE serves as the coordinator for district staff. The DPE’s responsibilities include planning activities, such as, forensic studies; participating in design concept conferences; reviewing performance histories of materials; studying processes for pavement construction; maintaining databases for subgrade and pavement material stiffness or structural properties; assessing pavement performance with maintenance staff; and coordinating design strategies for pavement rehabilitation with district staff.

The development of the pavement design and rehabilitation strategies should jointly involve material engineers, maintenance engineers, planning engineers, construction engineers, design engineers and area engineer staff.

The DPE should also coordinate and participate in the development of district pavement preservation plans in conjunction with district maintenance plans.