Alternative Pavement Rehabilitation Strategy Using a Geogrid Interlayer

A common pavement rehabilitation strategy to address structural and functional deficiencies of the underlying pavement involves repairing the damaged Portland cement concrete (PCC) layer and placing a 4- to 6-inch asphalt concrete (AC) overlay. The AC-PCC composite pavements comprise a significant portion of roadway mileage in the U.S., representing over 91,000 centerline miles, including 9,500 centerline miles on the Interstate network alone. This process often requires costly and time-consuming concrete repairs before adding the asphalt layer, yet it does not guarantee the durability of the rehabilitated pavement section. According to the 2024 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) report om Practices for Maintaining and Resurfacing Existing Composite Pavements, the performance of AC overlays on existing PCC pavements varies considerably. State departments of transportation (DOTs) reported performance lives of about 6 to 15 years for AC overlay. The major distress affecting the performance of AC-PCC composite pavements is reflective cracking - a phenomenon of propagation of cracks from an existing cracked pavement surface into and through the newly laid overlay due to traffic and/or temperature induced stresses. The distress due to reflective cracking can be retarded by the installation of different interlayer systems, which can improve the performance of the asphalt overlays by providing stress relief, reinforcement and moisture control.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Programmed
• Funding: $179,875.00
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Nebraska Department of Transportation

  1500 Nebraska 2
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68502
• Project Managers:

  Halsey, Lieska

• Principal Investigators:

  Teixeira, Jamilla

  Eun, Jongwan

  Song, Chung

• Start Date: 20250701
• Expected Completion Date: 20270531
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bituminous overlays; Geogrids; Pavement interlayers; Portland cement concrete; Rehabilitation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01945348
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Nebraska Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 10 2025 11:11AM