ABSTRACT
An instrumented pavement section was realized during the widening of an Italian motorway in order to evaluate the curing process and performance of two types of cold-recycled mixtures: a cement treated material (3% of cement) and a cement-bitumen treated material (2% of cement and 3% of bitumen emulsion). The mixtures were fabricated in place by full-depth reclamation and, before the construction of the upper courses, the recycled layer was instrumented with pressure cells, asphalt strain gauges, time domain reflectometer probes and ther mistors. After construction, part of the recycled layer was sealed with bitumen emulsion in order to evaluate the effect of free or prevented water evaporation on the curing process. This paper describes the site preparation, the pavement construction phases, sensor installation and the setup of the data acquisition system. The moisture data recorded by the time domain reflectometer probes during 90 days are presented. Results show that moisture loss was higher for the cement treated material that was characterized by higher cement content. In addition, covering the layer with a bitumen emulsion membrane (i.e. preventing water evaporation) induced a marked reduction (around 50%) of the initial curing rate.
