ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Within the framework of the SPENS project (Sustainable Pavements for European New Member States) WP 4 (Work Package 4), materials and pavement layers appropriate for road upgrading, considering the conditions in New Member States will be evaluated. Modified bitumen as asphalt binders and high modulus asphalt mixtures are more and more popular in road construction, but insufficient information is available on the actual performance of these mixtures. Within Task 1 (Investigation of the Performance of the Conventional and Polymer Modified Bitumen) the objective is to find performance based binder criteria founded on correlations between binder tests and critical asphalt performance tests. Within this objective we will test already suggested performance based binder criteria and try to find new or better criteria for those asphalt properties, where good and solid correlations has not yet been found. With sound performance based binder criteria the choice of binder for a particular application is simplified. Task 2 deals with studies of High Modulus Asphalt Concrete (HMAC) as technical solution providing improved durability of road asphalt pavement with possibility to reduce the pavement thickness and road construction costs. Further during the pavement service, well-designed pavement requires less maintenance operations, thus giving the reduction of maintenance cost. Accelerated load test was performed with Heavy Vehicle Simulator on pavement structure with HMAC. In Task 3 the effect of different layer thicknesses and strengthening treatments in the pavement structure were evaluated with the HVS-Nordic.
