Book Description

Pavement preservation represents a proactive approach to maintaining and extending the lives of existing highway pavements. At the heart of the preservation decision-making process is pavement performance. This report documents the recommended experimental design for the LTPP SPS-11 Asphalt Concrete (AC) Pavement Preservation Study as well as the various elements required for its successful implementation. However, the recommended experiment will not be implemented under the LTPP program, but the experiment and this project report can be adopted and adapted by interested highway agencies to achieve the stated benefits, and consequently the impetus for publication of the report. The underlying concept of the experiment is to apply the same preservation treatment, at different times, on the same pavement structure to determine the effectiveness of a single application of a treatment as a function of pavement condition and time. This experiment is designed to answer the question on when is the best time to apply a preservation treatment on AC pavements. It will also enable development and implementation of important pavement preservation products and tools, such as addition of pavement preservation considerations to the AASHTO Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide and associated software.