International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247

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International Journal of Transportation

Science and Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijtst

Feasibility of perpetual pavement stage construction in China: A

life cycle cost analysis
Zhongyin Guo a, Saud A. Sultan b,
a
School of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 CaoAn Gonglu, Shanghai, China
b
Department of Highways and Transportation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The main objective of pavement design and management is to build sustainable pavement
Received 29 November 2016 structure with minimum costs during its whole life. There are many uncertainties in the
Received in revised form 21 January 2017 process of pavement design pertaining many of its variables, such as future traffic estima-
Accepted 22 January 2017
tion, long time behavior of materials, future weights and types of traveling vehicles, avail-
Available online 6 February 2017
ability of funds etc. Therefore, it is important to apply pavement stage construction
technique during the process of pavement design and management to minimize the risk
Keywords:
associated with these uncertainties. From the beginning of 2000, the research and applica-
Stage
Construction
tion of perpetual asphalt pavement (PP) technology has been deployed in China. The semi
Perpetual rigid base for asphalt pavement has been normally considered as typical component of
Pavement high class highways in the design according to the Chinese experience since 1997. The
Lifecycle research objective is to apply pavement stage construction for the evaluation of life cycle
costs of Chinese perpetual and traditional semi rigid pavements using operational pave-
ment management system in addition to examine its suitability for design and construc-
tion of more economical and durable flexible pavements. It has been found that the
stage construction of asphalt layers in PP over semi rigid pavement foundation will create
more sustainable and trusted pavement structures in spite of 25% increase in present total
cost.
2017 Tongji University and Tongji University Press. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction

Stage construction of pavement

Planned stage construction is a process of providing fully adequate pavements with the most effective use of materials,
energy, and funds as reported by Asphalt Institute (1991). Stage construction is the construction of roads pavement by apply-
ing successive layers of asphalt concrete according to design and to a predetermined time schedule. The design of planned
stage construction should not be confused with the design of major maintenance or the rehabilitation of existing pavements.
The procedure is based on the assumption that the second stage will be constructed before the first stage shows serious signs
of distress.

Peer review under responsibility of Tongji University and Tongji University Press.
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sasultan2003@yahoo.com (S.A. Sultan).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtst.2017.01.005
2046-0430/ 2017 Tongji University and Tongji University Press. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
240 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247

There are several circumstances in which stage construction is advantageous:

1- When funds are inadequate to construct the full design thickness, the pavement may be designed for construction in
two stages.
2- Accuracy problems in estimating traffic for a period of 2025 years make planned stage construction attractive.
3- Experience indicated that pavements overlaid after they had been subjected to traffic performed somewhat better
than new pavements of equal design.
4- Pavement distresses that develop during the first stage can be restored.
5- Savings may be realized from reduced final thickness or from extended life of the original pavement.

Recent studies by Abaza and Ashur (2011) and Vavrik et al. (2009) recommended the use of stage construction to achieve
perpetual pavements to benefit from its advantages. The only concern is whether the costs associated with stage construc-
tion may have an impact on the present total cost in spite of stage construction benefits. According to AASHTO (1993), if the
analysis period is 20 years (or more) and the practical maximum performance period is less than 20 years, there may be a
need to consider stage construction in the design analysis.
When considering in stage construction design alternatives, it is important to consider the impact of compound reliabil-
ity. The overall reliability for example of two stage strategy (each stage is designed for 90% reliability) would be 0.90
0.90
or 81%. Therefore, the following equation should be considered to check the overall and individual reliability of stage
construction:

Rstage Roverall 1=n 1

where n is equal to the number of stages included in the initial pavement design.
In the stage construction, the traffic growth should be estimated for each stage. The future number of 18 kips equivalent
standard axle load repetitions is estimated by multiplying the first year 18 kips equivalent standard axle load repetitions
(ESAL) by the growth factor (G). Growth factor (G) can be obtained from the following equation, (AASHTO, 1993):

G 1 gn  1=g 2

where G is the growth factor, g is the traffic growth rate divided by 100, and n is the number of years. For example, if the
traffic growth rate is 5% (g = 0.05) and n = 20 years, then the growth factor G equals to 33.066. Table 1 shows the AASHTO
traffic growth factors as a solution of Eq. (2) above (AASHTO, 1993). Increasing the annual growth rate and/or the analysis
period (as the case in perpetual pavement) may increase the AASHTO growth factor to up to unreasonable value of hundred
times to be multiplied by first year traffic. For this reason, the consideration of stage construction becomes more necessary
especially if we recall that perpetual pavements should serve for long period up to 50 years and growth rate more than 7%.

Perpetual pavements

The fast increase in traffic volumes and the loadings on road pavements has focused the light on the need for durable
pavements that will last for long time with minimum costs. The perpetual pavement (PP) is defined by Asphalt Pavement
Alliance (APA) (2002) as An asphalt pavement designed and built to last longer than 50 years without requiring major struc-
tural rehabilitation or reconstruction and needing only periodic surface renewal in response to distresses confined to the top
of the pavement. The perpetual pavement technology has an important role in prolonging the service life of pavement with
minimizing maintenance and user costs over that life. The initial thick structure of perpetual pavement has the ability to
reduce stresses within pavement layers under increasing traffic loads meanwhile, its higher initial construction cost and
asphalt materials behavior on very long service life should be examined thoroughly. The perpetual pavement may not need
to be reconstructed and the only need is to replace the deteriorated surface periodically. The long life of PP is attributed to
the use of special formulated asphalt concrete mixes for the construction of asphalt concrete layers. The thickness of asphalt
layers in PP is usually thick (from 20 to 50 cm). The thickness of PP is determined by limiting the tensile strain at the bottom
of asphalt layer (fatigue criterion), while the total thickness of PP structure is determined by limiting the compressive strain
on the surface of sub grade (rutting criterion). The upper surface layer is designed to resist wear and top-down cracking, the
intermediate asphalt binder layer is designed to resist the rutting and fatigue, and the lower asphalt base layer is designed to
resist bottom-up cracking. In PP, the possibility of traditional fatigue cracking is reduced, and pavement distress is limited to
the upper layer of the structure. From the beginning of 2000, the research and application of perpetual asphalt pavement (PP)
technology has been deployed in China. The semi-rigid base asphalt pavement has been normally appointed as typical struc-
ture for high class highway design and construction in China. Semi-rigid base asphalt pavement is the main pavement struc-
ture in China since 1997; it comprises about 90% of total pavement structures. The semi rigid is comprised mainly from
asphalt concrete layer (friction layer) and semi rigid base layer (load bearing layer) (Wang, 2013).
 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247 241

Table 1
AASHTO traffic growth factor, (AASHTO, 1993).

Analysis Period Years (n) Annual growth rate percent (g)

No Growth 2 4 5 6 7 8 10
1 1.0 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
2 2.0 2.02 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.10
3 3.0 3.06 3.12 3.15 3.18 3.21 3.25 3.31
4 4.0 4.12 4.25 4.31 4.37 4.44 4.51 4.64
5 5.0 5.20 5.42 5.53 5.64 5.75 5.87 6.11
6 6.0 6.31 6.63 6.80 6.98 7.15 7.34 7.72
7 7.0 7.43 7.90 8.14 8.39 8.65 8.92 9.49
8 8.0 8.58 9.21 9.55 9.90 10.26 10.64 11.44
9 9.0 9.75 10.58 11.03 11.49 11.98 12.49 13.58
10 10.0 10.95 12.01 12.58 13.18 13.82 14.49 15.94
11 11.0 12.17 13.49 14.21 14.97 15.78 16.65 18.53
12 12.0 13.41 15.03 15.92 16.87 17.89 18.98 21.38
13 13.0 14.68 16.63 17.71 18.88 20.14 21.50 24.52
14 14.0 15.97 18.29 19.60 21.02 22.55 24.21 27.97
15 15.0 17.29 20.02 21.58 23.28 25.13 27.15 31.77
16 16.0 18.64 21.82 23.66 25.67 27.89 30.32 35.95
17 17.0 20.01 23.70 25.84 28.21 30.84 33.75 40.54
18 18.0 21.41 25.65 28.13 30.91 34.00 37.45 45.60
19 19.0 22.84 27.67 30.54 33.76 37.38 41.45 51.16
20 20.0 24.30 29.78 33.07 36.79 41.00 45.76 57.27
21 21.0 25.78 31.97 35.72 39.99 44.87 50.42 64.00
22 22.0 27.30 34.25 38.51 43.39 49.01 55.46 71.40
23 23.0 28.84 36.62 41.43 47.00 53.44 60.89 79.54
24 24.0 30.42 39.08 44.50 50.82 58.18 66.76 88.50
25 25.0 32.03 41.65 47.73 54.86 63.25 73.11 98.35
26 26.0 33.67 44.31 51.11 59.16 68.68 79.95 109.18
27 27.0 35.34 47.08 54.67 63.71 74.48 87.35 121.10
28 28.0 37.05 49.97 58.40 68.53 80.70 95.34 134.21
29 29.0 38.79 52.97 62.32 73.64 87.35 103.97 148.63
30 30.0 40.57 56.08 66.44 79.06 94.46 113.28 164.49
31 31.0 42.38 59.33 70.76 84.80 102.07 123.35 181.94
32 32.0 44.23 62.70 75.30 90.89 110.22 134.21 201.14
33 33.0 46.11 66.21 80.06 97.34 118.93 145.95 222.25
34 34.0 48.03 69.86 85.07 104.18 128.26 158.63 245.48
35 35.0 49.99 73.65 90.32 111.43 138.24 172.32 271.02

Perpetual pavements in China

China started to design, construct, and test PP expressway sections such as Yan Jiang expressway in Jiangsu province in
2004, Xu Wei expressway in Henan province in 2005, and Binzhou test road in Shandong province in 2005 as reported by
Wang (2013). Two PP are selected from pavement test sections on Shanghai to Tianjin motorway near Binzhou, Shandong
Province for the purpose of analysis in this paper as reported by Yang et al. (2006) and are shown in Fig. 1. Semi-rigid base
asphalt pavement is the main pavement structure in China since 1997. Two semi rigid pavement structures are selected for
the purpose of analysis in this paper, one represents PP of Qing Huangdao freeway and the other is a conventional semi rigid
pavement as reported by Wang (2013) and are shown in Fig. 2. These four pavement sections have been chosen because of
their better performance in comparison of all reported cross sections as reported by Sultan and Guo (2016). The increasing of
the asphalt layers thickness would increase the total stiffness of the pavement structure and decrease the stresses transmit-
ted to the sub grade layer. Due to the large thickness of asphalt layers in PP, higher resistance to bottom-up fatigue cracking,
structural rutting, and thinner granular base/sub base layers are expected in comparison with the conventional pavement
designs. Since the evolving of AASHO pavement design method in the late 1950s, many examples of conventional road pave-
ments which last for more than its design period are reported around the world with only suitable maintenance and reha-
bilitation of surface layers (Tarefder and Bateman, 2009). The full depth asphalt pavements are well known everywhere since
early 1970s (Yoder and Witczak, 1975). The only difference which characterized PP is its design for long time period more
than 50 years and for high number of equivalent single axle loads up to 100 millions, which requires thorough analysis of its
life cycle performance.
Chinese pavement designers try to build their own PP experience by employing their long time experience with long life
semi rigid pavement structures. Different PP designs have been implemented in the construction of new expressways, but
the long time performance of these pavements and the comparison with long life semi rigid pavements need further studies
as highlighted by Guy et al. (2015) and Tran et al. (2015).
242 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247

Fig. 1. Two perpetual pavement test sections on Shanghai to Tianjin motorway near Binzhou, Shandong Province, Yang et al. (2006).

Fig. 2. Semi rigid perpetual of Qing Huangdao freeway and conventional semi rigid pavements, Wang (2013).

Pavement management system

The pavement design process has as its objective the design and management of the pavement throughout its lifetime in
order to minimize the total cost. The performance of pavement systems involves the interaction of numerous variables such
as material properties, environment, traffic loading, construction practices, maintenance activities and management con-
straints. In order to select an optimum pavement strategy, methods are needed that consider the interaction of these vari-
ables and constraints. The development of an operational pavement systems model, called SAMP5, a computer program
developed by NCHRP project (Hudson and McCullough, 1973). Systems analysis model for pavement (SAMP) is an extension
of the algorithms in the particular version (SAMP5). There are seven classes of input variables as follows: (1) material
 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247 243

properties, (2) environment and serviceability, (3) load and traffic, (4) constraints, (5) traffic delay, (6) maintenance and (7)
program control and miscellaneous. An operational flexible pavement systems model (SAMP5) has been developed. The
approach to meet this need was the development of the operational pavement system model (SAMP5), a computer program
produced during the work on NCHRP project (110), (NCHRP reports 139 (Hudson and McCullough, 1973), 140 (Nair and
Chang, 1973), and 160 (Lytton et al., 1975)). The SAMP5 computer program adopts the view that routine maintenance
and future rehabilitation (overlay) are part of the total pavement management process. Future costs are discounted to the
present and the total cost per square yard is used as the criterion for determining which pavement is the optimum. Including
in the total cost is the users cost a term for the expense to the traveling public of being delayed while detouring on overlay
activity. These costs are weighted equally with actual construction cost. It is also generally agreed that pavement material
would have a salvage value which depends mainly upon their expected future use. Pavement design is normally a repeated
process, in which the designer assumes a certain combination of thickness of layered materials and subsequently checks the
layered systems for adequacy form the point of view of traffic and environmental deterioration, construction, and rehabil-
itation costs, as well as cost of future seal coats, overlays and routine maintenance. The program analyses the input and gives
the output that the designer of the pavement can connect between the cost and maintenance after pavement life in years by
choosing the best design for the pavement needed. Therefore, the need for pavement with long life with minimum mainte-
nance cost seems to be a valuable objective. SAMP5 computer program has been modified to take into consideration
AASHTO, 1993 pavement design. More details about the algorithm and the operation as well as modifications of the com-
puter program SAMP5 are available in the literature (Hudson and McCullough, 1973; Nair and Chang, 1973; Lytton et al.,
1975; Sultan, 1995; Sultan and Tong, 2000). This program will be used in this research to evaluate the performance and life
cycle costs of different PP in China.

Research objectives

Recent studies by Abaza and Ashur (2011) and Vavrik et al. (2009) have recommended the use of stage construction tech-
nique to build more economical perpetual pavement structures for different reasons as highlighted previously. Therefore, the
main objective of this research is to study the feasibility of using stage construction technique in the design and construction
of perpetual pavement in China because of its unique properties as compared with other international PP structures to find
more economical plus reliable PP structures. The converting of the traditional semi rigid pavement in China to high class
modern perpetual pavement by stage construction will be studied too, through the following steps:

1- Comparing life cycle costs of modern perpetual pavements with traditional semi rigid pavements using SAMP5.
2- Applying stage construction technique on modern perpetual pavements and traditional semi rigid pavements using
SAMP5 to find the life cycle costs.
3- Comparing the controlling fatigue cracking and rutting criteria of each studied pavement structure.

Methodology

In order to achieve the objectives of this research the following steps have been carried out:

1. Properties of perpetual pavement in China

A comprehensive data survey procedure has been carried out on constructed PP in China to find the required values of the
input variables for this research analysis purposes. The results of field tests on existing PP projects have been considered,
calibrated and compared with design values in order to determine the most reasonable ones as reported by different
researchers.

2. Pavement management system

In order to carry out the life cycle costs analysis using SAMP5, computer program (which has been modified to use
AASHTO, 1993 design method), it is necessary to determine the magnitude of its input variables. The magnitude of SAMP5
input variables has been kept constant for each of the studied pavement for comparison purposes except the thickness of
pavement layers, properties of materials, design life, and number of equivalent axle loads in order to find life cycle costs.
The magnitude of some SAMP5 input variables has been obtained from PP test sections as reported by different researchers
(Yang et al., 2006; Wang, 2013). The magnitude of the rest of SAMP5 which are related to program constraints, operation,
movement of vehicles through the overlay construction zone, etc. are as reported by Sultan (1995), Sultan and Tong
(2000), and Sultan and Guo (2016) respectively.
244 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247

3. Mechanical empirical analysis

The selected PP structures will be subjected to mechanical empirical analysis to find their fatigue and rutting stresses and
strains in terms of tensile strain at the bottom of asphalt layer and compressive strain on the surface of sub grade using the
computer program Kenpave (Huang, 2004) and using fatigue and rutting models of Asphalt Institute (Asphalt Institute, 1986)
as shown in Eqs. (3) and (4) respectively.

Nf 0:0796et 3:291 E1 0:854 3

where; Nf = number of load repetition to fatigue failure (20% cracking), et = tensile strain at the bottom of asphalt layer, E1 -
= modulus of asphalt layer.

Nd 1:365
109 ev 4:477 4

where; Nd = number of load repetition to rut failure (rut depth = 1.2 cm), ev = compressive strain on the sub grade surface.

Analysis of PP in China

Three different PP structures in China are chosen for the life cycle cost analysis in addition to one conventional semi rigid
pavement as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 above using the modified SAMP5 program. The objective of this analysis is to carry out a
comparison between these different pavement structures in terms of present total cost (which includes construction cost,
maintenance cost, and user cost), total service life in years, maximum number of equivalent 18 kips (8.6 tons) equivalent
standard axle loads, time to structural overlays, and thickness of structural overlays.

SAMP5 input variables

In order to compare the performance of the selected pavement structures, the input variables of SAMP5 will be kept con-
stant for each of the studied pavement. The only variable is the materials type and thicknesses of each different design in
order to find life cycle costs by trial and error. The input values of SAMP5 variables which include the thickness of pavement
layers, cost and properties of pavement materials, program constraints, and others have been obtained from PP test sections.
More details about the input variables are as reported recently by Sultan and Guo (2016).

SAMP5 output results

SAMP5 can evaluate the interaction of about 100 input variables which cover a wide range of design, construction, main-
tenance, performance, economy and management variables. SAMP5 gives the best feasible designs in an increasing order of
total cost for the specified magnitudes of the 100 input variables. Each run of the program for different combination of

Fig. 3. Stage one of perpetual pavement test sections shown in Fig. 1.

 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247 245

pavement layers with different materials gives 30 optimum possible designs in increasing cost order. In our study, it is
important to evaluate different specified pavement structures by trial and error from the economical and life cycle costs.
In order to apply stage construction technique on the selected perpetual pavements in Fig. 1 above, a first stage of 20 years
has been suggested for the construction of these two pavements as shown in Fig. 3. While for stage two, it has been sug-
gested to be similar to the pavements in Fig. 1. For two semi rigid pavements in Fig. 2 above a first stage has been suggested
for the construction of these two pavements as shown in Fig. 2.
While for stage two, it has been suggested to be similar to the pavements in Fig. 4. SAMP5 presented three models to han-
dle traffic delay associated with overlay construction. A comparison between these three models showed small difference in
the values and small values in general. The low magnitude of user costs is the main advantage of perpetual pavements in
comparison with conventional pavements as mentioned above. SAMP5 results showed small difference between the ana-
lyzed pavement structures according to its traffic handling models that ease the traffic movements around overlay site.
The periodic maintenance costs and the user costs results are almost the same for all the analyzed pavement structures
because in our analysis scenario, all the studied pavements will be overlaid after 20 years and they will have the same user
and maintenance costs. Therefore; these costs will be deleted from the comparison of results.
The scenario for the analysis is to implement two-stage construction technique on the selected pavement structures for
comparison purposes depending on present total cost which includes initial construction cost and overlay construction cost
minus the salvage values. This scenario suggests that the asphalt layers of the analyzed pavement structures will be laid into
two stages. In the first stage of 20 years, only 17.5 cm of 32.5 cm asphalt will be laid for PP-1. While, in the second stage
(after 20 years) the remaining thickness of asphalt (15 cm) will be laid after milling the deteriorated asphalt surface layers.
The laying of asphalt layers should be according to the original sequence of layers as shown in Fig. 1. For the rest of the ana-
lyzed pavement structures (PP-2, PP-3, and P-4) the laying of asphalt layers into two-stages is shown in Figs. 2 and 3 after
milling the deteriorated asphalt surface layers at the end of 20 years (first stage). Table 2 and Table 3 have been prepared to
show the results of life cycle costs and mechanistic analysis of the selected pavement structures in Figs. 1 and 2 using full
construction technique as reported by Sultan and Guo (2016). Table 4 and Table 5 have been prepared to show the results of
life cycle costs and mechanistic analysis on the selected pavement structures in Figs. 3 and 4 using two-stage construction
technique. It should be noted that the cost of asphalt overlay in the second stage has been discounted to the present time.

Analysis of results and conclusions

Table 6 has been prepared to summarize the results of analysis that has been carried out on selected pavement structures
in China using two-stage construction technique. The comparison between these results shows that the present total cost of
two-stage construction technique in constructing perpetual pavements in China is 25% higher than the full construction. In
spite of the slight increase in the total construction costs, the stage construction can be the right answer for the uncertainties

Fig. 4. Stage two of semi rigid perpetual pavement test sections shown in Fig. 2.
246 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247

Table 2
SAMP5 results for perpetual pavement using full construction (with no stage construction) as mentioned by Sultan and Guo (2016).

Pavement structure number Total service life (years) Max. number of ESAL (millions) Present total cost (US $/m2)
PP-1 40 80 44.66
PP-2 20 20 41.06
PP-3 20 20 44.17
P-4 20 20 39.42

Table 3
Mechanistic analysis of perpetual pavement using full construction with no stage construction as mentioned by Sultan and Guo (2016).

Pavement structure number HMA tensile micro strain Sub grade compressive micro strain Cracking life (millions) Rut life (millions)
PP-1 15.5 184 200 72.30
PP-2 19.8 186 200 68.88
PP-3 7.5 15.7 200 147.12
P-4 20.3 17.6 200 88.22

Table 4
SAMP5 results for perpetual pavement in Figs. 3 and 4 using two-stage construction technique.

Pavement structure number Service life (years) Max. number of Present total cost (US $/m2)
ESAL (millions)
Stage construction (stage one)
PP-1 20 20 37.36
PP-2 20 20 41.06
PP-3 20 20 44.17
P-4 20 20 39.42
Stage construction (stage two)
PP-1 40 80 10.08
PP-2 20 20 2.88
PP-3 20 20 4.32
P-4 20 20 4.15

Table 5
Mechanistic analysis results for the pavement structures.

Pavement structure number HMA tensile micro strain Sub grade compressive micro strain Cracking life (millions) Rut life (millions)
Stage construction (stage one)
PP-1 17.3 197 200 53.06
PP-2 19.8 186 200 68.88
PP-3 7.5 157 200 147.12
P-4 20.3 176 200 88.22
Stage construction (stage two)
PP-1 15.5 184 200 68.30
PP-2 16.7 179 200 81.49
PP-3 6.6 144 200 215.50
P-4 18.4 133 200 308.07

Table 6
Comparison between full and staged construction of analyzed pavements in China.

Pavement structure Total service life (years) Max. number of ESAL (millions) Present total cost (US $/m2)
Full const. Two-stage const. Full const. Two-stage const. Full const. Two-stage const.
PP-1 40 60 80 100 44.66 47.44
PP-2 20 40 20 40 41.06 43.94
PP-3 20 40 20 40 44.17 48.49
P-4 20 40 20 40 39.42 43.57

associated with future traffic estimation, long time behavior of materials, future weights and types of traveling vehicles,
availability of funds etc.
Therefore, stage construction of PP asphalt layers over semi rigid pavement foundation will create more sustainable and
trusted pavement structures. These results are in good agreement with recommendations of many researchers around the
world as mentioned in the literature above.
 Z. Guo, S.A. Sultan / International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology 5 (2016) 239247 247

Recommendations for future research

1- It is recommended to carry out further research on the possibility of using recycled asphalt pavement materials in the
stage construction of new PP or to convert old and deteriorated conventional asphalt pavements to PP.
2- It is recommended to carry out further research on the possibility of using recycled semi rigid pavement materials in
the stage construction of new PP or to convert old and deteriorated conventional semi rigid pavements to PP.

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