Overview
In the three countries Germany, Austria and Switzerland similar goals in developing better pavements are focussed. The goal to construct roads with good performance under high and heavy traffic has thus a high priority.
The goals of the research project are
1) to summarise the state of the art in the three countries, especially to compile:
a) how heavy trafficked section of road is defined and what is considered as optimal in terms of noise, rutting, skid resistance and long term performance;
b) the specification of mixes primarily used for such roads in the three countries are to be discussed and compared;
c) the state of research is to be described
2) the systems applied in the three countries should be compared in the final report and compared
3) gap of knowledge should be identified
4) a follow up research project should be initialised and guidelines should be defined
The work program includes:
- Evaluation of the state of the art in Switzerland
- Cooperation with the research partner in Germany and Austria, to ensure that similar partial reports arise
- Presentation of an interim report on the D-A-CH Meeting in 2006
- Definition of the research bundle D-A-CH
- Creation of a synthesis report
Funding
Results
The construction of highly trafficked loads in a durable way is one of the common goals in the three countries Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Hence the goal is to use optimal mixes and, at the same time, to draft standards in such a way that they help to reach this goal. As a first part, the state of the art of the three countries was described. It was subsequently compared as a base for drafting an international research project. As a core element structures of layers suitable for such a research were evaluated. A preliminary evaluation of some test (e.g. for testing rutting resistance) was done on base of literature study. To achieve these goals, each country analysed in a research project the situation. These individual reports are integrated in the final report of the project. Since Switzerland had the lead, it was its duty to write a synthesis which is the first part of this document.
The report
• shows the state of the art in the three countries, covering
1. a description, how a highly trafficked road is defined and what was regarded as optimal in respect with heavy use, noise, rutting, Griffigkeit and durability
2. the specifications for mixes selected in the three countries, including discussion and comparison
3. a recapitulation of the recent research
• compares in a synthesis the systems used in the three countries to evaluate mixes and structures for highly trafficked roads
• makes suggestions for a future international research project to investigate mixes and bituminous layers applied in test sections. The suggestions of the three countries for an optimal design of mixes and layers for this research are based on the national standardisation.
Innovation aspects
The three countries are compared in the field of roads pavements.