National Concrete Pavement Technology Center

Project description

TxDOT has been constructing pavement structures with cement-treated materials for many years; however, premature failures, such as rutting and cracking, occasionally occur during or shortly after construction. To ensure cement-treated base (CTB) durability and adequate performance over the pavement design life, it is critical to have a better understanding and knowledge of the significance of material mixture designs, construction, and inspection techniques. This project will look at the existing TxDOT guidelines and provide a comprehensive evaluation of how they compare to other published guidelines and recent literature. Particularly, this project will evaluate the potential benefits of new technologies such as inverted pavement structure and super slurry on the properties of the CTB. This evaluation includes developing new rheological testing standards and specifications for evaluating best slurry mixes to maximize performance of the most common TxDOT recycled base material. The project will include an extensive laboratory evaluation of performance and durability of CTB material prepared using traditional on-site and in-plant mixing and compare it to the newly proposed slurry-based mixing. These tests will provide the basis for the new mix design specifications and laboratory testing, along with developing baseline curves for in-situ inspection and evaluating field performance.