Water in the Pavement Surfacing

Pavement surfaces provide a key route of ingress of rain water into the pavement construction. Thus, permeability of asphaltic materials and the water ingress capacity of cracks in the pavement are very important. A range of equipment exists to determine the permeability of asphaltic mixtures both by in-situ and laboratory testing. Sometimes porous asphalt surfacing is provided to deliberately allow water into the pavement to limit spray from vehicles and to limit tyre-pavement noise generation. These porous surfaces can become clogged with fines, but rehabilitating without causing premature damage is a challenge. Except for this planned acceptance of water into the pavement, water is generally undesirable as it often causes ravelling (stripping) of the asphalt whereby aggregate and binder separate. The mechanisms behind this separation are becoming better understood due to advances in computational engineering and mechanical and physio-chemical testing.