Heavy vehicle simulator and laboratory testing of a light pavement structure for low-volume roads

Abstract

Developing countries such as South Africa have an urgent need to create road infrastructure for rural access and urban mobility. Many of these roads will operate under low traffic volumes and only require a sealed, light pavement structure. Conventional material selection criteria often prevent the use of materials that may have sufficient stiffness and strength to provide good performance. This paper presents full-scale accelerated test and laboratory results from a study done on such a light pavement structure with a marginal base layer material. Two accelerated tests were done with a Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) and the pavement and base layer performed well during these tests. The good performance of the test sections is supported by the better than expected mechanical properties of the material obtained from laboratory testing. The results show that conventional material selection criteria may be too strict for application to low volume roads and that performance related properties should be tested on a project by project basis