Gravel Road Performance Enhancements – Phase II

The quality of gravel road materials (e.g., abrasion resistance, freeze/thaw durability) is very important, since common surface deteriorations such as material loss, gradation change, loss of crown, surface erosion, rutting, washboarding and potholes can be directly related to the quality of the materials used in these roadways. In particular, the aforementioned deteriorations following the use of low-quality aggregates and improper gravel surface gradation can cause severe rutting and washboarding problems for gravel roadways. The importance of the index properties of gravel road surface materials such as maximum aggregate size, gradation, plasticity, and quality has long been recognized. However, most state department of transportation (DOT) specifications for gradation and plasticity of gravel road-surface materials are neither performance-based nor strictly executed. Consequently, considerable variation exists in the performance and durability of gravel roads, and substantial amounts of the freshly placed material for maintenance and repair rapidly degrades to smaller particles and dust. To address these challenges, the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) initiated the first phase of the proposed project “Gravel Road Performance Enhancements-Phase I”. The first phase of the project has conducted a comprehensive laboratory study to evaluate the efficiency of mixing gravel road surface materials with different size aggregates and subgrade soils on improving the performance of granular roads. Approximately, 13 gravel road surface materials and 4 subgrade soils were collected from four different counties (Douglas, Cherry, Scotts Bluff, and Harlan) in Nebraska that experienced significant road distresses.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Programmed
• Funding: $177,000.00
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Nebraska Department of Transportation

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

  Halsey, Lieska

• Principal Investigators:

  Cetin, Bora

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

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aggregates; Gravel roads; Laboratory tests; Performance tests; Subgrade materials
• Geographic Terms: Nebraska
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01945358
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Nebraska Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 10 2025 2:11PM