THE CONTRIBUTION OF PERVIOUS MACADAM SURFACING TO THE STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE OF ROADS

Although the spray-reducing properties of pervious macadam surfacing are well known, there is a distinct lack of information available about its structural performance. As a result its structural contribution is not considered in the design of new roads or bituminous overlays. The structural strengthening brought about by laying pervious macadam surfacings on existing roads has been assessed by using linear elastic theory to compute the stresses and strains induced in the pavements by vehicle loading before and after surfacing with the pervious macadam. These computations predicted a significant reduction in the magnitude of stresses and strains after surfacing, a result which was confirmed in practice by direct measurement on a full-scale road pavement. Stress and strain computations were then used to determine the structural contribution of 40 mm of pervious macadam surfacing in terms of equivalent thicknesses of rolled asphalt surfacing and rolled asphalt and dense bitumen macadam roadbases for the present recommended designs of road pavements. (Author/TRRL)