Long-life pavement design and construction: A case study

Over the past 20 years, China's transportation infrastructure has developed rapidly. To date, more than 40,000 kilometers expressway have been built and opened to traffic, ranking second in the world. In the meantime, short service life and early failure of the highway pavement have become one of major concerns. This may be contributed by the poorly designed semi-rigid pavement structure and heavily overloaded vehicles. In more recent years, some long-life pavement structures have been designed and constructed. This paper discusses the design and construction of an expressway long-life flexible pavement structure in China. The project involved is a new 26.78 kilometer, Da'an to Jiliao Section in Henan Province, of the Erlianhaote to Guangzhou Expressway. The pavement had been designed as a semi-rigid structure which was later replaced by the new long-life flexible pavement structure in order to introduce this pavement technology as a cost-effective alternative to current semi-rigid or rigid pavement technology in China. Technical services provided through integrated technology transfer activities have presented a model for future expressway projects an option, and made the long-life flexible pavement structure the leading edge of national practice.