National Concrete Pavement Technology Center

Project description

State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are continuously seeking to increase the value of pavement rehabilitation and maintenance investments by identifying design and construction practices that reduce rehabilitation costs and increase pavement life. DOTs commonly use geosynthetics as filters, separation layers, and subgrade restraint to facilitate construction on weak subgrades. Subgrade restraint is the use of geosynthetic at the subgrade/sub-base or subgrade/base interface. Recently, geosynthetics have been used to reinforce aggregate base courses, which increases the support from the base to the pavement structure. While laboratory studies are informative, prior to making a substantial change in design or construction practices, it is wise to begin validating findings with field studies. The research objective is to develop a study to evaluate and quantify structural benefits from use of geosynthetics placed within or at the bottom of aggregate base layers only under Nevada conditions. This is the first project of a multi-phased project. The primary deliverable is a plan to support a controlled field demonstration, with input regarding design, specifications and standards, all of which will allow for adjustments as needed in the time between the different phases of the overall field study (planning, construction, data collection, and data analysis).