Investigation of Performance of Asphalt Pavement with Fly-Ash Stabilized Cold In-Place Recycled Base Course

Abstract

Class C fly ash is a coal combustion product from lignite or subbituminous coal obtained as a result of the power generation process. In recent years, efforts have been made to incorporate self-cementing fly ash into cold in-place recycled (CIR) asphalt material to improve the structural capacity of asphalt pavement base layers. In this study, asphalt pavements in County Trunk Highway JK in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, were pulverized in place and mixed with fly ash and water to function as a base course. To evaluate the contribution of fly ash to the pavement’s structural performance, nondestructive deflection tests were performed with a KUAB 2m-FWD falling weight deflectometer (FWD) on the outer wheelpath right after construction. The MICHBACK program was used to backcalculate the material properties of pavement layers from FWD measurements of deflection. The average moduli of the materials in the hot-mix asphalt layer, fly ash–stabilized base course, and subgrade were backcalculated. The structural capacity and structural number were also obtained from FWD test data. The structural coefficient of 0.16 was obtained for the fly ash–stabilized base course in the highway. The results of FWD testing indicate that CIR stabilization with self-cementing fly ash is an economical method of recycling flexible pavements and eliminates the need for expensive new granular base courses for road reconstruction.