Effectiveness of pavement preservation treatments on the structural health of the pavement

Abstract

Pavement preservation treatments are widely applied for surface condition restoration based on different purposes and extent of surface damage. No significant study has been executed on if the preservation treatments provide structural benefits to the pavement layers. There is also remaining scope to investigate if the treatments help the long life of pavement structure, the life extension benefit has not yet been quantified. NCAT at Auburn University has low volume pavement preservation sections at Lee Road 159. At that test location, there are 23 treated sections along with two control sections constructed back in 2012. Along with other surface condition testing, falling weight deflectometer (FWD) deflections are being collected periodically over the years in service. The treatments were subdivided in groups based on the categorical type of the treatments. The center deflections, base damage index, base curvature index, area under pavement profile, backcalculated layer moduli, and required overlay thickness were calculated based on the deflection values over the deflection basin. Statistical and numerical analysis have been performed to investigate if the treatments are providing structural benefits to the pavement layers and the expected extension of life is being predicted from the structural health condition indices mentioned above. In the summary, the study focuses to investigate if the treatments impose any structural benefit to the pavement and how much benefit it can reach to the pavement over the years of service. It was observed from the results that, the preservation treatments are helping to maintain structural soundness of the pavement depending on the type and extent of the treatment application.