Investigation of a Pavement Premature Failure on a Weak and Moisture Susceptible Base
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 23, Issue 5
Abstract
An investigation was conducted to determine the root cause of the premature pavement failure. The premature pavement failure occurred in the form of rutting and alligator cracking. Although the affected portion was repaired by removing and replacing the top 75-mm asphalt concrete (AC), the repaired AC experienced recurring rutting and alligator cracking in a few weeks. Through extensive field and lab testing, it was found that the weak base is the root cause of the premature failure and the brittleness of the AC is secondary. However, both the base and AC were built according to plan and met the current material and field density requirements. It was concluded that density alone for construction quality control is not sufficient, as it was not able to protect against premature failures from occurring. Although there are many different ways to minimize premature failures, an immediate action is to include proof rolling in construction quality control. Proof rolling has been used with success to ensure proper compaction and to locate unstable areas, as the stability is greatly influenced by the degree of densification achieved during compaction.
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Acknowledgments
The support and assistance from John Bilyeu, David Wagner, Richard Williammee, Bill Nelson, and Jenny Li of TxDOT and Tom Scullion of Texas Transportation Institute are much appreciated.
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Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 30, 2008
Accepted: Mar 20, 2009
Published online: Mar 28, 2009
Published in print: Oct 2009
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