Perpetual Pavement
AN INCH AT A TIME
P
erpetual pavement is a concept that was
developed and has traditionally been marketed for high-volume applications like
freeways and interstates. There is no reason, however, that this life-extending design approach can't
be applied to lower-volume roads, or to rehabilitations of thinner pavements. Even pavements that
were not originally designed to be perpetual can
become perpetual pavements — one inch of asphalt
at a time.
In a nutshell, perpetual pavements are designed
to develop distresses from the top down rather than
from the bottom up. This preserves the integrity of
the pavement structure and confines damage to the
top layer, where it can be easily managed without
requiring full-depth repairs or major rehabilitation.
Asphalt pavements can be designed to never develop bottom-up fatigue-related distress, regardless of
how many loads are applied to the pavement, and
no matter how heavy those loads may be.
Better Roads December 2012 27
NAPA_BR1212.indd 27
12/10/12 4:44 PM
