Abstracto

A STUDY ON PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE AND OVERLAY DESIGN USING HDM-4

Geethu Saji Sreelatha T B.G Sreedevi

Maintenance and repair of the highway pavements accounts to major expenses in the state budget. Highway Development and Management tool, HDM-4 software, developed by the World Bank for global applications is utilized for identifying an optimum maintenance strategy for highway pavements. The study area selected was Seaport-Airport Road (SPAP Road), a two-lane, 11.47km long road running between HMT Kalamasseri and Cohin Refineries Ltd. Economic analyses of different overlay options were evaluated using HDM-4. The concept of Ultra-Thin Whitetopping has not yet introduced in Kerala. Ultra-Thin Whitetopping may be defined as a concrete overlay 50mm to 100mm thick, with closely spaced joints and bonded to an existing bituminous pavement. It consist of a thin layer of high strength, fibre- reinforced concrete placed over a clean , milled surface of distressed bituminous concrete pavement, to achieve full or partial bonding. From the deterioration summary it is identified that even after 15 years, the riding quality of Ultra-Thin Whitetopping is the excellent and the most desirable one without any intervention. Ultra-Thin Whitetopping has the minimum rate of roughness progression which in turn may lead to very low Road User Cost values thus providing 46% increase in the Net Economic Benefits than that of Ordinary Bitumen overlay. It also improves the functional efficiency of the pavement.