National Concrete Pavement Technology Center

Project description

In 2010, a section of roadway on Utah SR 30 near Emery, Utah was reconstructed using a geogrid-reinforced pavement system. This project was intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of geogrid in reducing cost, providing longer service life, and reducing long-term maintenance of the pavement system. This roadway carries between 200 to 300 coal trucks per day in each direction. A test section was constructed first to evaluate the effectiveness of four different biaxial geogrids. While this test section has performed well, much of the remaining roadway section has required significant multiple maintenance procedures to keep it functional. The primary objectives of this research project are to evaluate forensically the test section and the rest of the roadway to determine why the test section has performed well but the rest has not; evaluate the performance of each of the four geogrids; determine the benefit, if any, provided by the geogrid to the pavement system; and develop methods to evaluate the use of geogrid on other pavement systems.