Impact of warming temperature on asphalt pavement overlay performance and cost: case study in New Jersey

Abstract

This study aimed to quantify the impact of warming temperatures on flexible pavement overlay performance with the effects of various in-place air voids. The performance models in Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) Pavement Design were locally calibrated and used to predict pavement distresses. The findings indicated transverse cracking due to low temperatures would become less problematic with milder winters, while more extreme high temperatures in summers contributed to faster pavement deterioration especially in the fatigue cracking. The analysis results showed that using the historic climate inputs in pavement design would overestimate the service lives for asphalt pavement overlays. As the in-place air void increases from 5% to 7% under the climate change scenario, the predicted pavement life decreases by 3–4 years. Further analysis showed that, with the effects of warming temperatures, agency costs could be reduced by controlling in-place air void through pay adjustment in quality assurance of the pavement construction.

KEYWORDS:

• Asphalt pavement overlay
• climate change
• in-place air void
• fatigue cracking
• warming temperature

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Joshua DeFlorio, the chief of Resilience & Sustainability at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for his valuable comments. The authors also thank Daniel Bader and Radley Horton from The Earth Institute of Columbia University for enhancing the understanding of NPCC climate projection data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).