Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
15 Aug 2008, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Abstract
Asphalt pavements constructed directly over high plasticity clays appear to be more susceptible to premature cracking parallel to the gutter on curb and gutter pavement cross sections than pavements with crushed stone bases. This paper describes five factors common to two sites studied that may be contributors to this early distress. These factors are: cracking is top-down; moisture content of the subgrade soils beneath the cracks is higher than optimum; density of the subgrade soils beneath the cracks is lower than optimum; subgrade soils are highly plastic; full-depth construction; and all pavements had curb and gutter typical sections. In addition, similar pavements constructed on crushed stone bases in the vicinity of the full-depth pavements with the same construction and materials characteristics do not display this cracking. Results of this work warrant study of construction techniques with regard to optimum moisture and density requirements when paving full-depth asphalt over plastic clays.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Shuler, Scott, "Implications of Swelling Clays on Asphalt Pavement Performance in Colorado" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 6.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session11b/6
Implications of Swelling Clays on Asphalt Pavement Performance in Colorado
Arlington, Virginia
Asphalt pavements constructed directly over high plasticity clays appear to be more susceptible to premature cracking parallel to the gutter on curb and gutter pavement cross sections than pavements with crushed stone bases. This paper describes five factors common to two sites studied that may be contributors to this early distress. These factors are: cracking is top-down; moisture content of the subgrade soils beneath the cracks is higher than optimum; density of the subgrade soils beneath the cracks is lower than optimum; subgrade soils are highly plastic; full-depth construction; and all pavements had curb and gutter typical sections. In addition, similar pavements constructed on crushed stone bases in the vicinity of the full-depth pavements with the same construction and materials characteristics do not display this cracking. Results of this work warrant study of construction techniques with regard to optimum moisture and density requirements when paving full-depth asphalt over plastic clays.
