PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of an ultra-thin asphalt pavement as a preventive maintenance approach through laboratory tests. METHODS : An ultra-thin asphalt pavement of 2 cm wearing course thickness comprising modified asphalt and aggregate is a preventive maintenance method used for asphalt pavements. A mix design was carried out to determine the optimum aggregate gradation and asphalt contents. A dynamic immersion test was performed to evaluate the water-resistance of the ultra-thin asphalt pavement. A wet track abrasion test and a cohesion test were conducted to examine the applicability of the ultra-thin asphalt pavement in surface treatment. The performance of the ultra-thin asphalt pavement was evaluated through wheel loading tests, such as Hamburg wheel-tracking and third-scale model mobileloading simulator (MMLS-3). RESULTS : An optimum binder content of 4.9% was obtained in the ultra-thin asphalt mixture from the Marshall mix design. The waterresistance tests indicated a 70% dynamic immersion coverage rate of the ultra-thin asphalt pavement. The wet track abrasion test showed an abrasion rate of 0.0107 g/cm2, and the cohesion tests indicated a 19.0 kg·cm average cohesion at 30 min of operating time and 21.4 kg·cm average cohesion at 60 min of operating time. From the Hamburg wheel-tracking test, a 16.56 mm rut depth at 20,000 wheel passing was obtained. Finally, a 5.87 mm rut depth at 300,000 number of wheel passing was detected from the MMLS-3 test. CONCLUSIONS : The water-resistance of the ultra-thin asphalt pavement satisfied the recommended guidelines of the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. In addition, the applicability of the ultra-thin asphalt pavement as a surface treatment met the standard of the International Slurry Surfacing Association. Furthermore, the deformation performance of the ultra-thin asphalt pavement was 1.5 times better than that of the straight asphalt pavement, based on the results of the wheel-loading tests. Hence, it is estimated that an ultra-thin asphalt pavement has a high performance in the preventive maintenance of asphalt pavement, even though the cracking resistance was not evaluated in this study.

In recent years, there have been applied methods for minimizing noise by adjusting the method of installing soundproof walls, soundproof tunnels, soundproofing rims, environmental facilities, etc., and the shape of the surface texture of tire treads and packaging materials for the purpose of reducing road noise. Low noise pavement methods such as rubber asphalt (CRM), open graded asphalt concrete (OGAC), permeable Friction Courses (PFC), open graded friction courses (OGFC) and porous asphalt have been applied to reduce road noise. Especially, porous pavement is the most widely used low noise pavement with porous structure, which can reduce noise and drain water through continuous void of pavement. On the other hand, porous asphalt pavement has problems such as reduction of noise reduction effect and difficulty of road surface management due to void closing and increase of construction cost. The purpose of this study is to develop ultra-thin layer hot mix asphalt pavement method which maximizes road noise reduction effect by surface micro voids (Recover asphalt pavement) to improve void clogging of present porous pavement method. For this study, maximum size 5mm aggregate and cationic-treated fiber reinforced asphalt modifier (CSM) were used. The Marshall design method was applied grain-size distribution curve was based on SMA mix design. Marshall test, TSR, MMLS3 test and Hamburg test were carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties of ultra -thin layered asphalt pavement method with surface micro voids. Also, the effect of road noise reduction was evaluated through field application in urban area.