Pavement Rehabilitation, Colombia, South America

The original main traffic road with asphalt surface in Columbia, South America, has been showing extensive reflective cracking which is the major drawback of asphalt pavements, and has caused damages due to high axle loads or increased traffic loads.

Reflective cracking in the pavement surface has caused numerous problems, such as discomfort for the users, lower safety, added infiltration water and reduction of bearing capacity. Commonly, a paved road becomes a candidate for maintenance when its surface shows significant cracks and potholes. Therefore, the government would like to choose economical and long-term performance way to solve the cracks on the pavement.

ACEGrid® GA glassfiber geogrid is being increasingly used at asphalt overlay base level to enhance the overall performance. The asphalt reinforcement with ACEGrid® GA has an advantage that it can be placed in the asphalt layer to restrict reflective cracks and ease the installation. In this project, after milling of the original pavement, it can be installed directly and overlaid with hot mix asphalt.

After the construction is completed, the performance of reinforced pavement shows very good condition. No reflective cracking and pothole are discovered. On the other hand, the depth of ruts is also decreased and has well serviceability.