Course Catalogue.

Learning Outcomes

• Be able to recognize and use current common pavement design procedures.
• Understand common design and construction features important to the performance of both asphalt and concrete pavements.
• To design and recognize specification and construction activities that can improve the performance of pavements.
• Communicate and promote good road design and construction practices. 

Purpose and Background           
One of the most valuable and used physical assets in North America are our pavements.  Roads, highways, airports and parking facilities serve to support the movement of goods and people for both business and recreational purposes.  These assets impact the daily life of almost everyone.  The peak of road building in North America was during the 1960s and 70s.  The focus was to provide safe, durable and accessible vehicular transportation for everyone.  Since that time, our focus has been mostly on the maintenance and rehabilitation of this valuable infrastructure.  Unfortunately, demand has exceeded our capability to maintain our roadway infrastructure.

An alternative to the traditional flexible and rigid pavements that we commonly used in North America, are semi-rigid pavements.  The most common semi-rigid pavements include, natural stone, interlocking concrete and clay brick pavements.  The use of these types of pavement were common through the 1800s and 1900s in North America but fell out of favor with the sub-urbanization of our major cities.  Stone and brick pavements were overlaid with asphalt concrete in the downtown areas of older cities.

Semi-rigid pavements have many advantages over asphalt and concrete pavements.  They are very commonly used for ports and intermodal terminals as they offer the ability to accommodate vertical and horizontal shear movements without serious damage, can be removed and replaced to access underground utilities at minimal cost, provide a long term sustainable pavement and offer overall life-cycle cost advantages.  Semi-rigid pavements are very durable and if installed correctly have very few maintenance needs.  European cities and towns use more than 10 times as much semi-rigid pavements compared to conventional pavements in their urban areas compared to agencies in North America.  Their appearance also aesthetically pleasing compared to conventional pavements.

The purpose of this webinar is to develop an understanding of the key features of design, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation to assist agencies and other owners to ensure that they are getting what they paid for and to cost-effectively extend the service life of our pavement infrastructure.

The primary discussion topics of this webinar include:

• Basics of semi-rigid pavement design
• Design of semi-rigid pavement using ASCE Standard Guideline 58-17.
• Key design features to ensure pavement longevity
• Construction techniques improve performance
• Maintenance and rehabilitation planning and execution

Webinar Benefits          

• Understand methods to cost-effectively design, construct and maintain semi-rigid pavements
• Understand the importance of key design features
• Specify semi-rigid pavements
• Recognize construction deficiencies and their impact
• Plan effective maintenance and rehabilitation treatments
• Optimize pavement investments

Who Should Attend

• Engineers involved in the design, evaluation and management of pavements
• Roadway agencies
• Personnel involved in the design or management of transportation assets