Bitumen Quality, Pavement LCCA, and Contractor’s Expectations

QC/QA (Quality Control/ Quality Assurance) tests on asphalt binder may assess that the as-constructed pavement has characteristics different from the ones set out in the contract for the as-designed pavement due to the insufficient quality of the bitumen. Therefore, a Pay Adjustment (PA) is needed. In the light of the above facts, the objective of this paper was the assessment of a quantitative relationship between asphalt binder quality and the consequent Pay Adjustment, for a given class of boundary conditions. Once the problem was modelled, experiments and simulations were carried out through the use of M-E PDG (Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide, 2007). Consequences in terms of pavement life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and contractor’s expectations were derived. Results demonstrated how bitumen quality and cost influence Pay Adjustment and contractor’s strategy.