Effects of Recycled Materials on Long-Term Performance of Cold In-Place Recycled Asphalt Roads

Abstract

With a limited maintenance budget and unprecedented construction cost increases, many owner/agencies in the United States are beginning to rehabilitate existing distressed pavements. Cold in-place recycling (CIR) provides an economical rehabilitation method and has been widely used in the past 20 years. However, recycled roads have experienced inconsistent performance and that has hindered the application of CIR. The objective of this paper is to study the cause and effect relationships between factors, such as traffic loading, support condition, and aged engineering properties of the CIR materials, and pavement performance. Twenty-four roads in Iowa were examined through field and lab tests. Statistical analyzes show that, within the range of data in this study, better performance was observed on CIR roads with lower CIR modulus value and/or higher air voids.