ABSTRACT
The rate of pavement deterioration depends on several factors including the volume and type of traffic, pavement layer material properties, the environment and the maintenance strategy adoptedl. Deterioration will progress more rapidly if there is an increase in the volume of heavy vehicles or if the vehicle wheel loads increase. In hot climates, particularly, wheel-track rutting of bituminous road pavements is common on uphill road sections which carry slow-moving heavy wheel loads, due to the viscoelastic properties of bitumen. Additionally in hot climates, pavement cracking is often initiated at the surface due to age hardening of the bitumen2.
