Economic Evaluation of Long-Life Pavements: Phase 1 (Road Transport and Intermodal Linkages Research Programme)

With maintenance costs accounting for a large proportion of road budgets, this report assesses the economic and technical feasibility of innovative wearing courses for long life road pavements. (The wearing course is the top layer of a pavement structure which provides the riding surface for vehicles.) While having higher initial costs, such wearing courses have the potential to dramatically reduce recurrent road maintenance requirements and user costs and could also reduce overall costs significantly, under circumstances outlined in the report.--Publisher's description. In many nations with mature road networks, new road construction typically accounts for around 50% of the road budget. Much of the remainder of national road budgets is spent on maintenance and rehabilitation of existing roads. Current road construction methods and materials contribute to this outcome