A 9-Year Evaluation of Field Cracking and Rutting Performance of SPS-9 Superpave Experiment

Though the first of 26 Specific Pavement Study 9 (SPS-9) experiments was built more than 9 years ago to assess the field performance of the Superpave® asphalt and mix design and analysis system, there has been no definitive report on the experiment's overall field performance. This analysis therefore evaluates the performance of the SPS-9 experiments through the use of the 2001 distress data available from the Long-Term Pavement Performance information management system database. Field distresses evaluated in this study included rutting, fatigue cracking, longitudinal wheelpath and nonwheelpath cracking, and transverse cracking. In addition to the field distress evaluation, a statistical analysis was conducted to determine whether a performance difference exists between the Superpave "correct" performance-graded (PG) binder section and the Superpave alternative PG binder section designed to exhibit early distress at each of the SPS-9 sites. The statistical analysis relates the distresses through means (t-...