Case Study of Anti-Crack Geotextile Applied in Asphalt Pavement

Application of Anti-crack Geotextile in Asphalt Pavement

White-to-Black Reconstruction Project of Old Cement Pavement

Ⅰ. Project Overview

A section of a national highway was reconstructed by overlaying an asphalt surface course on the old cement concrete pavement, with a total length of approximately 6.8 km. Due to its long service life, the original cement pavement suffered from numerous transverse and longitudinal cracks as well as slab fractures. Direct asphalt overlay would highly likely result in reflective cracking.

Ⅱ. Design Scheme

·Clean and seal cracks on old cement slabs, and replace or reinforce broken slabs;

·Spray modified asphalt tack coat with an application rate controlled at 1.0–1.2 kg/m²;

·Fully lay 200g/m² polyester filament anti-crack geotextile;

·Overlay 6 cm medium-grained asphalt concrete plus 4 cm fine-grained asphalt surface course.

Ⅲ. Application Effects

·Effectively prevented upward reflection of cracks from the old pavement; no obvious reflective cracks appeared on the pavement three years after opening to traffic.

·The geotextile combined with asphalt formed an intact waterproof layer, basically eliminating mud pumping and frost heaving caused by rainwater infiltration.

·The overall smoothness of the pavement and driving comfort were significantly improved, and maintenance workload was greatly reduced.