Structural analysis of polymer modified bituminous materials in the rehabilitation of light-medium traffic volume roads

[Display omitted] •Innovative methods are applied to structural analysis polymer-modified bituminous materials (PMBM).•Empirical results used in layered elastic software to assess PMBM pavements.•PMBM resulted a solution to rehabilitate light-medium traffic volume roads.•Results proved that PMBM allows for a reduction of roads overlay thickness.•PMBM provided more durable structures and rehabilitation solutions. The long-term advantages of using of polymer-modified binders are not commonly observable in traditional tests or pavement design methods. Because of this fact and for economic reasons, their application is limited to high traffic volume roads. This paper examined the structural behaviour of bituminous mixtures used in road surface layers (considering costs and performance), and analysed the viability of using these materials for the rehabilitation of light-medium traffic volume roads. The results demonstrate that polymer-modified materials could be more structurally and economically efficient than unmodified materials, offering a solution to designers for the rehabilitating of light-medium traffic volume roads.