Piloting the Use of Intelligent Compaction for Evaluating Pavement Subgrade Uniformity and Adequacy

In pavement foundation quality control, the common practice involves spot testing mostly for density and, occasionally, stiffness or strength. Conventional spot test tools often have a shallow influence depth. Furthermore, spot tests provide very limited coverage (typically 1 or 2 tests per mile). Therefore, relying on spot tests for foundation testing can lead to failure in identifying areas with weak soil that are deeper than the spot test's influence depth (yet still impact pavement performance) or those located between spot tests. Intelligent Compaction (IC) is a vibratory roller-based technology equipped with a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), an accelerometer, and an onboard computer display. The accelerometer is mounted on the axle of the vibrating drum and records the drum rebound signals. Those signals are used to calculate Intelligent Compaction Measurement Values (ICMVs) using various algorithms. ICMVs reflect the level of compaction of compacted materials. IC can provide measurements for up to 100% coverage of the compacted area. The onboard computer display provides operators with real-time measurements as feedback.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $260,732.01
• Contract Numbers:

  TR202604

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Missouri Department of Transportation

  1617 Missouri Boulevard
  P.O. Box 270
  Jefferson City, MO  United States  65102
• Project Managers:

  Breeding, Scott

• Performing Organizations:

  Transtec Group

  6111 Balcones Drive
  Austin, TX  United States  78731
• Principal Investigators:

  Change, George

• Start Date: 20250301
• Expected Completion Date: 20270228
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Compaction; Data collection; Intelligent control systems; Quality control; Subgrade (Pavements)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01953944
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Missouri Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: TR202604
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Apr 30 2025 9:58AM