Use of Asphalt Reinforcement in Heavily Loaded Container Terminal Pavements by Zehra Kaya

Abstract

This paper presents a different perspective in pavement design and construction, based on a real-life project undertaken at a major Container Terminal in Brisbane, utilising an engineered asphalt reinforcement technology as an alternative to the traditional thick pavement design approach. Pavements at container facilities are generally constructed on reclaimed land, coastal swamps or marine environments developed beyond the natural shoreline. This case involves the construction of a brand-new terminal pavement built on a coastal swamp, using a cement-treated pavement base (CTB) to achieve the required level of pavement stability and a thick asphalt overlay that was originally planned. A common phenomenon of asphalt pavements constructed over CTB is reflective cracking due to the shrinkage cracking in the underlying CTB. Traditionally, in order to address this problem pavement designers incorporate thicker asphalt layers. This case, combined with extensive prior experience, demonstrates how the use of a high-performance asphalt reinforcement grid can provide a cost effective durable pavement with the same crack-mitigation performance as a traditionally designed thick asphalt while reducing the reliance on increased quantities of non-renewable construction materials.