A comparison between traditional pavement rehabilitation method as compared to recycling method

Abstract

Approximately, more than 20% of the road networks in Malaysia are unpaved roads of natural soil or earth or gravels. The primary objective of both pavement maintenance and pavement design is to ensure that the pavement provides adequate service to the road users. In lines with the government’s aspiration for Malaysia to be a developed nation by year 2020, it is necessary to upgrade the roads to a better quality. The emergence of recycling technique in pavement maintenance is not widely accepted. The current practice of mill and pave technique which is the traditional technique in pavement maintenance is widely used in Malaysia. Hence, many steps are taken to introduce alternative techniques in pavement rehabilitation. This alternative method had been proven by various maintenance contractors that is cheaper and takes shorter duration as compared to the traditional technique. The focus of this study includes: identifying types of pavement maintenance available in Malaysia; to identify differences between traditional methods to recycling method; and to identify the most economic method that can be used. The study employs the historical data and descriptive method and it was conducted in two stages that were literature reviews and interviews. Better understanding of theory and concept of the issues were developed through literature reviews. Unstructured and structured interviews had been carried out to obtain data as well as observation at the project sites. All data was analyzed using Frequency Analysis and Average Index. From this study, it can be concluded that the objectives of the study was successfully achieved. It was found that selection criteria for type of maintenance depends on the distress occurred and experiences in similar project in the particular technique. It is also found that recycling method provide more savings and advantages compared to conventional method.