PURPOSES : The numeric-based Highway Pavement Management System (HPMS), along with an advanced three-dimensional pavement condition monitoring profiler vehicle (3DPM), in South Korea has presented remarkable advancements in pavement management since the early 2000. Based on these results, visual distress on pavement surfaces can be easily detected and analyzed. Additionally, the entire expressway pavement surface conditions in South Korea can be easily monitored using the current graphical user interface-based advanced information graphic (AIG) approach. Therefore, a critically negative pavement section can be detected and managed more easily and efficiently. However, the actual mechanical performance of the selected pavement layer still needs to be investigated in a more thorough manner not only to provide more accurate pavement performance results but also to verify the feasibility of the current 3DPM and AIG approaches. In this study, the low-temperature performance of the selected asphalt pavement layer section was evaluated to further verify and strengthen the feasibility of the current 3DPM and AIG approaches developed by the Korea Expressway Corporation. METHODS : Based on 3DPM and AIG approach, the positive and negative-riding-quality road sections were selected, respectively. The asphalt material cores were extracted from each section then bending beam rheometer mixture creep test was performed to measure their low-temperature properties. Based on the experimental results, thermal stress results were computed and visually compared. RESULTS : As expected, the asphalt material from the negative driving performance section presented a poorer low-temperature cracking resistance than that from the positive driving performance section. CONCLUSIONS : Current 3DPM equipment can successfully evaluate expressway surface conditions and the corresponding material performance quality. However, more extensive experimental studies are recommended to verify and strengthen the findings of this study

PURPOSES : For most local governments, including that of Gangwon-do, the establishment of an organized pavement management system is insufficient, resulting in problems such as inefficient distribution and use of maintenance budgets for deteriorated road pavements. In this study, we aimed to contribute to the establishment of a more reasonable road maintenance strategy by developing a model for predicting the annual international roughness index (IRI) change for national highway asphalt pavements in Gangwon-do based on big data analysis. METHODS : Data on independent and dependent variables used for model development were collected. The collected data were subjected to exploratory data analysis (EDA) and data preprocessing. Independent variable candidates were selected to reduce multicollinearity through correlation analysis and specific conditions. A final model was selected, and sensitivity analysis was performed. RESULTS : The final model that predicts annual IRI change uses independent variables such as annual temperature range, minimum temperature, freeze-thaw days, IRI, surface distress (SD), and freezing days. The sensitivity analysis confirmed that the annual IRI change was affected in the order of annual temperature range, minimum temperature, freeze-thaw days, IRI, SD, and freezing days. CONCLUSIONS : Road maintenance can be performed rationally by predicting future pavement conditions using the model developed in this study. The accuracy of the prediction model can be improved if additional data, such as material properties and pavement thickness, are obtained in future studies.

PURPOSES : The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of air voids, binder content, and aggregate gradation on the indirect tensile strength (IDT) and cracking tolerance index (CTindex) of cored asphalt pavements. METHODS : Cored samples were obtained from roads in Incheon city, and several laboratory experiments were performed. First, the cored samples were first to cut into a size appropriate for the IDT test. Subsequently, the air voids of the samples were measured. The damaged sample from the IDT test was loose mixed at 150 ℃ before the binder content was determined, which was conducted via an asphalt extraction test. Finally, the clean aggregates obtained from asphalt extraction process were analyzed in the aggregate gradation test. RESULTS : The result shows that an increase in air voids from 4% to 8% decreases the IDT and cracking tolerance index (CTindex) by 30% and 28%, respectively. Incorporating a binder enhances the ductile behavior of the asphalt mixture, resulting in a higher CTindex. Finally, the contribution of the aggregate grade on the IDT and CTindex is negligible. CONCLUSIONS : The IDT and CTindex are primarily affected by the air voids and binder content. A higher percentage of air voids results in a lower IDT. In addition, a higher amount of binder increases the IDT and CTindex of the cored samples. Meanwhile, the aggregate grade does not affect the IDT.

PURPOSES : Preventive pavement maintenance is an economical and efficient method of infrastructure management. This study aims to improve the performance of cold thin-layer asphalt pavement, which is mainly used in earthwork pavement, and for bridge overlays and structures. METHODS : A cold asphalt mixture of modified emulsified asphalt and RAP was prepared for cold recycled thin-layer asphalt pavement. The performance of the mixture as a function of fiber reinforcement to improve flexural strength and crack resistance was evaluated. RESULTS : The use of RAP aggregate in cold asphalt mixture was found to increase the cohesive strength of the mixture and improve the wet abrasion resistance due to the effect of the residual binder. As a result of the loaded wheel test and flexural tension test with the addition of fiber reinforcement, it was found that the crack resistance of 0.4 % glass fiber was the best, and especially, the flexibility at low temperature was excellent. CONCLUSIONS : The cold recycled thin-layer asphalt pavement mixture has improved cohesive strength, flexural strength, and crack resistance compared to existing cold asphalt pavement materials, so it will contribute to economical and effective maintenance in preventive maintenance of bridge overlays and structural pavements.

PURPOSES : This study evaluates the long-term performance of the asphalt overlay designed by the Seoul pavement design method which determines overlay thickness by considering existing pavement conditions, traffic volume, and bearing capacity of the pavement. METHODS : A total of 76 sections including 17 control sections and 59 design sections were constructed under various traffic conditions, overlay thicknesses and asphalt mixtures. The performance of the pavements has been monitored up to 60 months in terms of surface distresses, rutting, and longitudinal roughness. The service life of the pavements was estimated to be the period when the Seoul pavement condition index (SPI) becomes 6.0, i.e., a rehabilitation level. RESULTS : Overall, the service life of the pavements was 72 months in the control and 120 months for the design sections. For relatively thinner overlay sections than designed, the service life reduced significantly; 36 months for 15cm thick overlay and 120 months for 25cm thick overlay. The service life of the pavement in the bus-only lane was 78 months, which is 30 months shorter than that in mixed-traffic lanes. Out of the bus-only lanes, 56% of the pavement along bus stop was deteriorated early to be a poor condition while only 2% of the pavement in a driving lane was degraded to be poor. The overlay with Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) in the wearing surface had 38% longer life than that with conventional dense graded mixtures. CONCLUSIONS : Most of the overlays sections designed by the Seoul pavement design method were expected to survive 10 years, except for bus-only lanes. The control sections having 5 to 10 cm thick overlays showed significant lower performance than the design sections. Thus proper thickness and materials considering the characteristics of existing pavement and traffic volumes should be applied to secure the service life of overlays.

PURPOSES : The surface distress of asphalt pavements is one of the major factors affecting the safety of road users. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors influencing the occurrence of surface distress and statistically predict its annual change to contribute to more reasonable asphalt pavement management using the data periodically collected by the national highway pavement data management system. METHODS : In this study, the factors that were expected to influence the surface distress were determined by reviewing the literature. The normality was secured by changing the forms of the variables to make the distribution of the variables got closer to normal distribution. In addition, min-max normalization was performed to minimize the effect of the unit and magnitude of the candidate independent variables on the dependent variable. The final candidate independent variables were determined by analyzing the correlation between the annual surface distress change and each candidate independent variable. In addition, a prediction model was developed by performing data grouping and multi-regression analysis. RESULTS : An annual surface distress change prediction model was developed using present surface distress, age, and below 0 ℃ days as the independent variables. As a result of sensitivity analysis, the surface distress affected the annual surface distress change the most. The positive correlation between the dependent variable and each independent variable demonstrated engineering and statistical meaningfulness of the prediction model. CONCLUSIONS : The surface distress in the future can be predicted by applying the annual surface distress prediction model to the national highway asphalt pavement sections with survey data. In addition, the prediction model can be applied to the national highway pavement condition index (NHPCI) evaluating the national highway asphalt pavement conditions to be used in the prediction of future NHPCI.

PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to evaluate an asphalt mixture via field application to utilize basalt aggregates produced on Jeju Island for a warm mix asphalt (WMA). METHODS : Using commercially available WMA additives, an indoor experiment is conducted on low- and high-void aggregates among basalt aggregates on Jeju Island. The physical properties of the WMA mixture are evaluated using one solid type and two liquid types of WMA additive. To evaluate the applicability of the WMA additives, air void, saturation, aggregate void, Marshall stability, flow number, indirect tensile strength, and toughness tests are performed. For the field application of WMA using basalt aggregates, three types of pavements (HMA, WMA-Solid, and WMA-liquid) are constructed. When applying the pavements in the field, an anti-stripping agent is incorporated to improve the water resistance while considering the characteristics of the basalt aggregate. Samples are acquired via plant and field coring to evaluate the properties of the materials applied in the field. RESULTS : In the indoor test for analyzing the applicability of the commercialized WMA additives to basalt aggregates, all tests except the indirect tensile strength test show results that satisfy the standards. All test results, including that from the indirect tensile strength test, satisfy the standard values in the test that uses the sample material obtained from the plant. Similarly, in the test with field cores, all test results satisfy the standard values. Therefore, the experimental value in the field application is generally higher than the test value in the indoor experiment. It is inferred that this is due to the difference between the basalt aggregates used in the indoor and field experiments, as well as the addition of the anti-stripping agent. CONCLUSIONS : Basalt aggregates produced on Jeju Island can be used for WMA pavements, as demonstrated via indoor experiments and field applications. However, owing to the characteristics of basalt aggregates, a method for improving water resistance should be considered, and tests to determine the indirect tensile strength should be performed using various basalt aggregates. In addition, because various basalt aggregates exist owing to the diverse geology characteristics of Jeju Island, they should be evaluated via more experiments and field applications.