Skip to main content

Long life pavements trials

Seven countries have confirmed their participation in field trials for the proposed third phase of the Long Life Pavement Project, being operated under the auspices of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation) and International Transport Forum (ITF).
July 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Seven countries have confirmed their participation in field trials for the proposed third phase of the Long Life Pavement Project, being operated under the auspices of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation) and 1102 International Transport Forum (ITF).

France, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium, the UK, Ukraine and Spain have confirmed while the US, Israel and South Africa have expressed interest and could also participate in the trials.

The third phase requires that countries take an active role in constructing roads using epoxy asphalt and high performance cementitious materials (HPCM).

France indicated it will launch two construction sites using HPCM (a roundabout and a 100m section of urban road). In the latter case, a parallel experiment will take place to assess the de-pollution effect of Titane Dioxide.

New Zealand has already started constructing sections of road using epoxy asphalt.

The Long Life Pavements project began in 2002, and in the first phase an economic evaluation of long life wearing course was performed. It concluded that long life pavement surfacing costing around three times that of traditional wearing courses could be economically viable, assuming an expected life of 30 years and an annual average daily traffic of 80,000 or more.

It also concluded that laboratory tests should be conducted on the two candidate materials identified (epoxy asphalt and high performance cementitious material).

In Phase 2 (2005-08), the two materials were tested in laboratories where it was found that both materials performed well, and it was concluded that the materials should be implemented on large scale demonstrations to test production, laying and performance issues

The objectives of Phase 3 are to coordinate trials in order to research production, laying and quality control, as well as cost, and demonstrate the performance of such surfacing under real traffic and environmental conditions.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The new CBA asphalt granulator bucket
    October 1, 2021
    Available in two models: CBA 30 for 18 to 28-ton excavators, and CBA 40 for the 25 to 40-ton range
  • Innovative paving techniques being utilised
    February 15, 2021
    Innovative warm mix materials are now being offered by key contractors to deliver longer surface life combined with more sustainable operations
  • Astec’s Shuttle Buggy lands in Australia
    March 5, 2024
    Performance reliability of the Roadtec SB-3000 Material Transfer Vehicle was a key factor in the contractor Boral’s decision to use it for paving work on the Western Sydney Airport Project.
  • Towards Sustainable highways, from its foundation
    June 29, 2015
    Geosynthetic materials are increasing its significance in many applications in the civil and underground engineering. One of such application is in foundation stabilization for roads. A life cycle assessment (LCA) study on behalf of the European Association for Geosynthetic Manufacturers (EAGM)1 has re-vealed that the use of geosynthetic materials will contribute for sustainable highways. In road construction the sub-base needs to meet defined requirements for compaction and bearing ca-pacity. Improveme