ABSTRACT
Abstract Retarding reflective cracking in bituminous pavements is a problem that faces the majority of Design Engineers involved in carriageway maintenance. The use of geotextiles and related products in this end has become markedly more widespread in the United Kingdom in recent years. These products can extend the pavement lifetime to a degree that makes their inclusion justifiable or desirable. A wide range of materials has become available to offer either reinforcement or stress relief, but until recently, there were no products that have sought to solve this problem by both means together. The development of combined materials such as reinforced non-woven geotextiles, composite geogrid / non-woven geotextile materials and woven polypropylene fabric interlayers has offered the Engineer a third choice, albeit at very widely differing costs. High strength woven polypropylene fabrics have been used with great success as a part of systems to retard the reflective cracking of asphalt pavements. This paper reviews their use and the comparative performance and cost of these and other geotextile interlayers, currently widely used in the United Kingdom. Keywords: Bituminous surfacing, geogrids, geotextiles, pavement lifetime, reinforcement, stress relief.
