Improvements to Linn Run Road: Case Study on Turn-Back of Asphalt-Paved Road Surface to Maintainable Gravel Road Surface

Because of the ever-increasing cost associated with asphalt repaving, interest has been growing in turning back deteriorating asphalt roadways into maintainable aggregate driving surfaces. For more than 10 years, Pennsylvania's Dirt and Gravel Road Maintenance Program has funded projects that use environmentally sensitive maintenance techniques to reduce sediment pollution on unpaved roads while providing low-cost, long-range road maintenance solutions. The Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies at Pennsylvania State University has worked with various state and local entities on projects designed to convert these deteriorated asphalt roadways into durable, maintainable gravel surfaces, with a focus on reducing the environmental concerns related to road runoff. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed accounting of one such project. Several accepted options are available to accomplish this task. For this project, the full-depth reclamation process that uses chemical stabilization techniques was selected as the methodology to be demonstrated. As the project progressed, several site-specific challenges were encountered and ultimately resulted in a change in the tactics employed to effect the conversion from asphalt to gravel successfully. The results of the study emphasize the importance of properly evaluating preconstruction site conditions to determine the best methodology to be employed and of providing for flexibility in the design criteria and specifications.