Structural Evaluation and Full Depth Reclamation Design of Lake Major Road

摘要

An evaluation of a 1.3 km length section of the Lake Major Road located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, was conducted by AMEC to determine the existing capacity of the pavement structure and the required overlay thickness to meet future traffic requirements according to the AASHTO 1993 and the Asphalt Institute design methods. The structural evaluation was conducted using simultaneous Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys to provide improved accuracy in determining the layer thickness, elastic modulus of the pavement layers and effective structural number at each test location. Due to the very poor level of serviceability. Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) of the pavement using expanded asphalt was selected as the more appropriate pavement rehabilitation approach. The GPR-based HMA thickness variability was used to evaluate the expected variability in FDR conglomerate aggregate gradation to occur during construction of the pavement and to optimize the design gradation and related properties of the stabilized base material. The use of GPR in both the structural evaluation and the optimization of the FDR aggregate blend were instrumental in developing a structural design and mixture design that were representative of the existing pavement structure.