Towards a Performance-Based Airport Asphalt Specification

Prescriptive or recipe-based specification of asphalt surface mixture design, production and construction is normal within the airport industry. However, reports of distress in generally compliant airport asphalt has eroded confidence in this traditional approach. As a result, there is increased interest in performance-based airport asphalt specification. This aims to allow innovation for risk reduction and to make asphalt producers more contractually responsible for the performance of their airport asphalt surfaces. Where performance-indicative test methods are available for the evaluation of airport asphalt performance requirements, performance-based testing is appropriate. However, where no such performance test exists, the traditional prescriptive requirements must be retained. A combination of prescriptive and performance-based specification requirements is appropriate. Future work is expected to focus on developing additional performance-indicative test methods where they do not currently exist.