Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Modern research in pavement engineering is focused on determining the mechanical behavior of materials to serve as input data for mechanistic pavement design procedures. Regarding granular base materials, stress dependency in mechanical behavior (failure behavior, resilient behavior, and permanent deformation) is one of the most important aspects. Cyclic triaxial loading tests represent a reasonable method for simulating the stresses resulting from dead loads and traffic loads, and they can be performed on specimens that reflect the density, gradation, and moisture content properties present in the original pavement.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is partnering with the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center through a cooperative agreement. Initial research efforts will focus on damage estimation and the evaluation of materials used in the application of bonding surface layers.

Faced with the engineering challenge of efficiently utilizing resources, alongside the pursuit of new technologies and materials for the maintenance and development of road networks, it is essential to explore optimization methods to rationally allocate financial resources, always focusing on delivering high-quality and durable works.

This study analyzes the changes in the physical properties of asphalt binders resulting from the incorporation of elastomeric and plastomeric modifiers, as well as lime, and how these changes affect the performance of the asphalt mixture.

Most considerations regarding fuel consumption and the rate of pollutant emissions are typically based on estimated vehicle fleet size, average speed, and distance traveled within a given area. However, a recently completed study indicated that road gradients and curves, pavement condition, and speed variations are equally significant factors.

Detailed Description of the Analysis, Decision-Making, Budgeting, and Construction Phases for the Reconstruction of Los Cerros Street in Escazú. Los Cerros Street serves as an access road to a residential area located in the southwest sector of the Escazú Canton. Faced with the deteriorated condition of the road, the local residents took the initiative to pursue a long-term reconstruction solution. Through community organization and collaboration, they assumed responsibility for the project and made well-informed decisions to ensure its successful execution.

With the approval of the new United States Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which includes the 1998 initiative to study intelligent vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation has undertaken various research efforts aimed at reducing crash-related incidents by up to 17% of the total 1.1 million accidents recorded annually.

Quality Control of Hot Mix Asphalt Production in both Argentina and Spain is carried out by evaluating the mixture composition and the parameters obtained according to the Marshall method. Once the asphalt mix is placed and compacted, quality control consists of extracting core samples to determine their thickness and density. This methodology, however, does not take into account the mechanical performance parameters of the asphalt layer once it has been executed. For this reason, a research project has been developed at the Roads Laboratory of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, based on the application of the Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS) test on core samples extracted from the pavement. Based on the results obtained, an acceptance criterion for bituminous mixtures has been proposed that allows for the evaluation of their mechanical quality, not merely their compaction. Currently, a study is being conducted at the Pavement and Road Engineering Laboratory of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, in collaboration with the Transportation Infrastructure Area of the Universidad Nacional del Comahue, aimed at assessing the potential implementation of this method in Argentina. This paper presents the aforementioned proposal and provides an analysis of the results obtained in both countries.

The determination of indirect tensile strength in bituminous mixtures is a mechanical parameter that can serve as a highly useful tool for evaluating the quality of the construction process of the asphalt layer. It is important to prevent the reduction of this strength, as it directly affects the pavement's in-service performance. At the Roads Laboratory of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the potential implementation of the indirect tensile strength test in the quality control of asphalt layer construction has been studied. As a complementary part of this research, the resilient moduli of the cores were also determined and correlated with their indirect tensile strengths. Using analytical methods, the influence of strength and modulus losses on pavement performance was analyzed. As the indirect tensile strength of bituminous mixtures decreases — and consequently, their resilient modulus — the number of load cycles the pavement structure can withstand drops significantly. This article presents the results obtained for pavement service life and equivalent thickness, calculated under specific assumptions, considering the reduction in indirect tensile strength.

Given the difficulty in securing budgets in Colombia, along with the lack of a maintenance-oriented culture among government agencies, it becomes imperative to execute road construction works with total quality. In order to achieve this total quality, it is essential, among other factors, to carry out thorough quality control at each stage of the pavement construction process.