Best Value Granular Material for Road Foundations

Aggregate base materials are becoming increasingly expensive in many parts of Minnesota because gravel mines and rock quarries are being lost to other land uses. These aggregate materials are classified for use and placed in quantities based on design procedures and testing techniques that are several decades old. To optimize material use and reduce waste, new mechanistic-based design procedures and testing techniques need to be implemented to achieve better value during road construction. This research study is aimed at evaluating pavement base/subbase performances of locally available aggregate materials (with gradations still falling within the Minnesota Department of Transportation specified gradation bands) in Minnesota through mechanistic pavement analysis and design. The main objective of this study is to demonstrate that locally available aggregate materials can be economically efficient in the implementation of the available mechanistic-based design procedures in Minnesota through the MnPAVE mechanistic-empirical flexible pavement design method. The goal is to develop the components of a new granular material best value software module to be added to the MnPAVE program. This report summarizes the detailed research findings from which the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) locally available aggregate materials with varying levels of quality can still properly serve traffic-level and environment-related loading from a mechanistic-empirical pavement design perspective provided that important aggregate properties, such as gradation and particle shape, are optimized; (2) potential shear failure in base and especially subbase need to be properly addressed as non-unique modulus-strength relationships were observed; and (3) the proper use of local materials can be quite cost-effective.

• Record URL:
  http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/TS/2012/201201.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/TS/2012/201201TS.pdf
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  205 North Mathews Avenue
  Urbana, IL  United States  61801-2352

  Minnesota Department of Transportation

  Research Services Section, 395 John Ireland Boulevard, Mail Stop 330
  St Paul, MN  United States  55155
• Authors:
  • Xiao, Yuanjie
  • Tutemluer, Erol
• Publication Date: 2012-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 167p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aggregate gradation; Aggregates; Aggregates by shape and surface texture; Cost effectiveness; Granular bases; Local materials; Mechanistic design; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design; Subbase materials
• Geographic Terms: Minnesota
• Subject Areas: Highways; Materials; I36: Aggregates;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01444967
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: MN/RC 2012-01
• Contract Numbers: 89260 (wo) 1
• Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 5 2012 2:00PM