Evaluation of rehabilitated urban recycled asphalt pavement

Abstract

Recycling of pavements is a relatively new technique for India and is gaining popularity in recent times due to several merits the technique has over conventional pavement rehabilitation techniques. The first recycling work of flexible pavements in India was undertaken a decade ago and since then the option of milling and recycling of bituminous layers has been adopted in some parts of urban and high-volume roads in India. However, no research studies were conducted on these works. Foamed bitumen recycled pavement work, which was undertaken on some urban roads of Kolkata city in India, has been reported in this paper. Detailed investigations conducted on the milling and foamed bitumen recycling work have been presented in this paper. Laboratory investigation was carried out on the milled and recycled material. Field evaluation of the pavements was done before and after rehabilitation using falling weight deflectometer. Results indicate that foamed bitumen recycling is a very promising alternative to rehabilitate bituminous pavements and to address the concern of conservation of energy and natural resources.

Keywords:

• recycling
• foam bitumen
• structural evaluation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to M/s Wirtgen India Private Limited for sponsoring the research project to investigate the foamed bitumen in-place recycling pavement. Special thanks are due to Mr Narendra Goud and others of M/s Wirtgen India Private Limited for their involvement and assistance during the project period. The authors also extend their gratitude to the officers of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the engineers of the construction firm responsible for the rehabilitation work for their cooperation during the investigation.