Research on distresses detection, evaluation and maintenance decision-making for highway pavement in reconstruction and expansion project

Artificial walking survey, ground penetrating radar (GPR) and falling weight deflectometer (FWD) were used to test the actual condition of the highway pavement in reconstruction and expansion project for better maintenance decision-making. Therefore, a decision-making system with the application of four evaluation indexes including deflection value (DV), pavement surface condition within 20 m(PCI20), maintenance effect (ME) and internal crack rate (ICR) was constructed. Through the pavement empirical-mechanical calculation and the Delphi method analysis, the corresponding threshold for the DV, PCI20 and ICR were 27 (0.01 mm), 80, and 20 m/100 m2 respectively. Then, the decision-making system was applied for the 5.5 km section with the detection and evaluation results, and the advised maintenance plans of different lanes were determined. Lastly, the effect of the decision-making system was analyzed. Results show that the decision-making system can scientifically decide the treatment plans and save the maintenance cost by about 30.1 %. The deflection near the grouting holes significantly decreases resulting from the high-density cement slurry distribution. The milling and repaving have a high structural reinforcement ability of reducing deflection up to more than 66 %, which is positively related to the milling depth.