Monitoring and Performance of AC Pavements Reinforced with Steel Mesh

The work focuses on the monitoring of an experimental stretch of road over a five year period in order to measure the effects of steel reinforcement on Asphalt Concrete (AC) pavement performance. The experimental stretch of road was constructed in 2001 alternating sections with and without steel reinforcement. This paper presents the results regarding the effects of steel reinforcement that were obtained by monitoring the AC pavements with nondestructive test (NDT) and visual inspection techniques and comparing the performances of pavements with and without reinforcement. In general, all the analyses confirm that the installation of the steel reinforcement produces a significant improvement in pavement performance. After five years of service, an analysis of the pavement sections with steel reinforcement showed an extension of Residual Life by a factor of two when compared with the equivalent pavements without reinforcement.