Optimal Use and Economic Analysis of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavements for Indian Road Network

Abstract

Pavement preservation using reclaimed asphalting techniques is a new field of research newlinethat has not yet been explored in India, and the required guidelines and specifications are newlinestill not established with available road maintenance norms, especially in India. Timely newlinerehabilitation of existing old Black Top (BT) roads using asphalt recycling techniques to newlineregain the structural capacity, and functional serviceability up to a desirable level would newlinebe a cost-effective and eco-friendly option. A rigorous literature review was made in this newlineregard to explore an additional method of rehabilitation for maintaining a great Indian road newlinenetwork through asphalt recycling techniques and to understand its cost-effectiveness and newlinemixed design philosophy. In the present study, an attempt has been made to: develop a newlinedesign methodology for strengthening of existing old National Highways by recycling the newlineexisting pavement material through a cold in-place recycling technique using foamed newlinebitumen, and working out a mix design for the base binder course using maximum newlineRecycled Asphalt product (RAP), and to produce an economical design for the newlinerehabilitation of old existing National Highways under the road development scheme of newlinerehabilitation and up-gradation program offered by National Highway Authority of India. newlineFor the program objective, Chennai-Tada Road, N.H-5 was selected for the research newlinepurpose. The Pavement was recommended for major strengthening under a rehabilitation newlineand up-gradation program from four-lane to six-lane. The existing pavement surface newlinecomposition was found 40 mm Bituminous Concrete (BC), and 160 mm Dense Bituminous newlineMacadam (DBM) laid in two layers of 80 mm each. A complete pavement assessment was newlinecarried out for the functional and structural failure in chainage between km 22+000 to newline54+365, where the pavement shows distress. The main parameters considered were: newlinerutting, cracking and shoving, and severity pavement condition indicators assigned as low, newlinemedium, and high. The Benkelman Beam deflection method was used