The preservation of environment by reducing the use of material and natural
resources together with important economic savings have led pavement recycling
to be a prime solution for pavement maintenance/rehabilitation. It is based on
sustainable development, by reusing materials reclaimed from the pavements and
reducing the disposal of asphalt materials.
The present paper focuses on the analysis of a heavily trafficked urban road
rehabilitation project. The original pavement design did not take into account the
current traffic levels which are considerably above the initial values. The pavement
was reaching failure in several areas and needed urgent measures to avoid
complete failure. The pavement condition was a result of lack of structural strength
and a deficient drainage.
A semi-rigid pavement structure was proposed in order to improve the bearing
capacity of the pavement and minimize the maintenance operations in the future.
The operations involved cold “in situ” recycling of part of the existing bituminous
layers and the top part of the granular layers with the addition of cement, and the
overlay with new bituminous mixtures incorporating a significant percentage of
materials reclaimed from the surface course of the same pavement. This solution
allowed the maintenance of the pavement level (without the need for footpath
reconstruction) and minimized the use of new materials, contributing towards a
sustainable development
