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Publication Details

An Overview of Surface Rehabilitaion Techniques for Asphalt Pavements General Interest: provides practical guidance to engineers responsible for the day-to-day design, construction, rehabilitation, maintenance, and management of pavements.

Primary Topic: Pavement Construction

Description: As more and more higher volume roads reach their terminal serviceability, it is becoming increasingly important to find ways that help extend pavement service life in the most cost effective manner. One way to accomplish this is through the increased use of relatively low cost surface rehabilitation techniques that help improve the functional condition of the pavement.

Nearly all highway agencies use some kind of conventional surface rehabilitation/ maintenance technique (such as seal coats, chip seals, and thin overlays) to maintain and even extend the service life of their asphalt pavements. The application of these techniques, however, has generally been limited to only low volume roads. On occasion a State may use a particular surface rehabilitation technique to address specific distress or as a short term fix on the more heavily travelled routes. The follow-up evaluation and performance documentation, however, is not always done. During 1990, several preventive maintenance treatments including slurry seals, chip seals, and thin hot mix overlays were applied to the existing pavements under the Strategic Highway Research Program's specific pavement studies experiment entitled, "Flexible Pavement Treatments" (SPS-3). The treatments were applied throughout the United States and Canada to evaluate the effectiveness of maintenance strategies on pavement service life. A total of 81 test sites were selected to cover various climates and pavement conditions as well as moderate to heavy traffic volume roads. Besides traditional surface rehabilitation techniques, many other approaches are now being pursued, particularly in Europe. These new techniques employ different additives/modifiers and aggregate composition as ways to attain increased pavement service life. This paper discusses various types of conventional surface rehabilitation techniques, along with many of the emerging techniques. The discussion includes information on usage, composition, construction, and (when available) performance and cost. This paper complements the work that SHRP has undertaken in this area. The compilation of such information should assist the designer (or manager) when selecting the type of rehabilitation/maintenance technique for higher volume roads to meet both the system need (budget) and project performance criteria.

FHWA Publication Number: FHWA-PD-92-008

Publication Year: 1992

Document Links: PDF (file size: 9 mb)



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Updated: 04/11/2022
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