Pavement damage behaviour of urban roads in seasonally frozen saline ground regions

Abstract

Wide-spread frost heave caused by soil freezing and pavement cracking due to frost action, which are the prevailing types that cause heavy damage to road engineering, have been observed during the service periods of urban roads in southern Xinjiang. In this study, several types of pavement damage were measured by long-term observations. Based on observed data and embankment geometry, pavement damage, PCI, salt contents distribution and ground temperature were analysed and discussed. The most common forms of pavement damage were longitudinal cracking (LC), transverse cracking (TC), and waving, which were observed in 45.01%, 20.33%, and 45.38%, respectively. Approximately 20% of the damaged pavement was also affected by TC in addition to LC. The results showed that pavement damage was closely related to the saline soil distribution, freeze-thaw cycles, water migration and embankment geometry. The damages due to frost heave and thaw settlement were more severe with a high salt content than with a low salt content. All the above forms of damage increased with increasing salt content and declining ambient temperature distribution. Furthermore, characteristics of damaged pavement have potential applications in designing road construction analyses and further investigations in seasonally frozen saline ground regions.