A review on mechanical behavior and design considerations for reinforced-rehabilitated bituminous pavements

Bituminous pavements cover a large part of Canada's roadway network. Traffic and environmental loadings cause distresses and damages in the pavement structure. A traditional approach for pavement rehabilitation is to implement an asphalt overlay on existing deteriorated bituminous pavement at specific times during its service life. However, this approach is somewhat expensive in the long run and not environmentally friendly. On the other hand, several studies indicate that the inclusion of a geosynthetic layer under an asphalt overlay leads to extended pavement service life. Nevertheless, there are still some discrepancies between fields and modeling results. These mainly stem from the fact that the mechanical behavior of reinforced asphalt overlay has not entirely been understood, which results in underestimate or overestimate design solutions. This paper first aims to review different aspects of mechanical interaction between geosynthetic material and asphalt overlay. Afterwards, essential considerations need to be considered in the design procedure to obtain an efficient reinforced-rehabilitated bituminous pavement structure are discussed. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.