Recycled Asphalt In Situ Testing-Highway Systems
Evaluating the Use of Alternative In-Situ Instruments to Be Used for Quality Control for Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) / Virgin Aggregate (VA) Road Bases
In the U.S., highway construction industry annually produces 100 million tons of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavements (RAP). In Virginia, there is about 4.7 million tons of access RAP that unless recycled is sitting as stockpiles at asphalt plants taking up valuable space. As part of another study in GMU, our team is already evaluating the ways to recycle this material as road base and will have a test site to confirm the findings from the laboratory under filed conditions.
The focus of this study is to particularly evaluate the suitability using Light Weight Deflectometer (LWD), Geogauge, and Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) devices be used as part of quality control measures in the field when constructing base course with RAP mixed with virgin aggregate. Previous conducted studies made attempts to evaluate these devices with RAP however, the effects of different binder contents on the field measurements have not be quantified. This study will add new information to the literature and work on developing methods that will allow the use of these instruments in the field succesfully. The study will first take place in a test pit inside the SGI laboratory and then will be implemented in the field.