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

This second part of the article provides further details on the elements required for developing vulnerability profiles of road infrastructure in the face of natural hazards in the Central American region.

The Western Research Institute, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), hosted the "Symposium on Pavement Fatigue Prediction" in Laramie, WY. The event lasted for two days (July 18–20). The symposium was organized to bring together the world’s leading researchers in the field of fatigue damage in asphalt pavements.

A broad transformation process, driven by a spirit of innovation and even a certain degree of boldness, has been undertaken in recent years by the National Road Directorate (DNV) of Uruguay. This process has introduced significant changes in the way management is carried out, with the aim of increasing its effectiveness and improving the quality of service provided to users.

Concrete pavements wear down, crack, or develop slab step-offs over time. To restore the pavement surface, diamond grinding offers several advantages: lower cost compared to an overlay, improved safety by increasing surface texture, and minimal traffic disruption during repairs.

In general, drivers and pedestrians use roads, bridges, sidewalks, intersections, traffic lights, informational signs, and other elements without realizing how much their construction and maintenance have cost the country. It is only occasionally, such as when a user reaches a toll booth on a highway, that they are directly confronted with the reality that road infrastructure has a cost that society as a whole must finance or pay in order to benefit from its service.

The incorporation of fillers into bituminous mixtures aims to achieve several objectives: among others, to thicken the bitumen in order to modify its viscous flow and improve adhesion to the aggregate. The resulting mastic provides a thicker binder film that coats the aggregate, helping to retard aging. In an asphalt mixture, the amount of filler to be incorporated will vary depending on the volumetric and physicomechanical properties that are desired. In Spain, the incorporation of filler and bitumen is specified by weight ratios, or 'critical concentration'. Through the direct tension test (BTD) developed at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the resistant response of different mastics is evaluated on specimens with pre-established gradation characteristics. In order to differentiate the behavior, two types of fillers were used: hydrated lime and Portland cement. Using the UCL method through the Cantabrian test, the losses due to the cohesion provided by the filler-bitumen pair are measured. Finally, the objective is to highlight the influence that the filler has on the mastic when used at different concentrations.

Currently, there is a significant trend towards the modification of asphalt binders due to the increase in traffic loads that pavement structures must withstand throughout their service life on the road, which ultimately leads to accelerated deterioration of the wearing courses. As a consequence of the above, there is a need to begin research and implement the necessary technology in our country to effectively modify our asphalt binders, that is, adapting existing procedures to our national context, both in terms of raw material production and in the analysis of the type and volume of the vehicle fleet.

The objective of this study is to determine which properties of the asphalt mixture are affected by a change in the consistency of the asphalt binder, in order to establish a technical criterion for evaluating the use of a binder with higher consistency than that currently used in paving projects in Costa Rica (AC-20). The study includes the use of dense mixtures produced in the laboratory with three different aggregate sources, three different gradings, and two binders with distinct consistency levels. Neither of the two binders was modified with polymers.

Financing, traffic congestion, and the use of new communication technology are the main challenges for the future of municipal authorities. In the state of California, USA, as in other states across the country, there has been a reduction in the funds available for roads. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the budget for roads was reduced by $2.6 billion, approximately 22.6%. This reduction originated from a recent decrease in taxes, which was implemented to combat the economic recession affecting the country, and has forced municipal governments to find more efficient ways to invest the money allocated for road maintenance and preservation.

Have you recently driven on reclaimed pavement? Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) is the term used to describe pavements constructed with reprocessed materials that contain asphalt and aggregates, now routinely used in nearly all 50 states of the United States. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates that each year nearly 30 million tons of RAP are recycled in combination with hot-mix asphalt pavements, saving taxpayers more than $300 million annually by reducing material costs and disposal expenses but, can RAP be incorporated into the construction of asphalt pavements using Superpave mix design techniques?