A Study on Decision Criteria of traffic volumes for Choosing of Modified Asphalt Pavement in Korea National Highway

Most national highways are paved with asphalt. Since increased traffic volume and high temperature have reduced the service life of pavements, modified asphalt pavements or stone mastic asphalt (SMA) have gradually been adopted. However, pavement engineers have difficulty to select pavement types due to lack of standard specifications for these new pavement types. In this study, service lives of general asphalt pavements based on traffic volume were analyzed using the inventory data of pavement management system (PMS) collected for last 10 years. The results showed 9.5 and 5.6 year average service lives for new constructed pavements and overlays, respectively. The traffic volumes for the design life of 10 years was presented based on confidence levels using service life distributions of current pavements. For the confidence level of 90%, 2,300 ESAL was obtained; 1,500 ESAL for the confidence level of 80%. This indicates that modified asphalt pavements should be considered for sections with the higher traffic volume.