Preface

Abstract

Abstract With the ever increasing axle load and traffic volume, premature failure of Heavy Duty Asphalt Pavement and Bridge Deck Pavement has been a major problem facing the academia and industrial community for years. In responding to the challenge, the ISAP (The International Society for Asphalt Pavements) Third International Symposium on Heavy Duty Asphalt Pavement and Bridge Deck Pavement was held in May 23–25, 2012, Nanjing, China. Experts in both academia and industry and from around the world shared their ideas and discussed state-of-the-art advancement in cutting-edge scientific research in related areas. This special issue on “Heavy Duty Asphalt Pavements and Bridge Deck Pavement” is a collection of 30 papers selected from over 190 papers through a rigorous peer review process in accordance with the academic standards set up by the Journal of Testing and Evaluation. The selected papers cover a broad spectrum of topics from materials to pavement structures, construction, maintenance, and management related to heavy duty pavement and bridge deck pavement. Fundamentally, these topics can be roughly divided into four groups. The first group deals with pavement materials such as design and performance of asphalt mixtures, test methods and characterization of mixtures, innovations in modified asphalt, and recycling. The second group focuses on pavement structures, including axle load investigation and axle load spectrum, semi-rigid base pavement structure, flexible pavement, composite pavement, pavement structure design, and subgrade structure. The focus of the third group is on bridge deck pavement, including mechanics analysis, concrete deck pavement, steel deck pavement, and waterproof layer and bond layer. The last group deals with construction, maintenance and management, including construction technique and equipment, preventive maintenance for heavy traffic roads, policies and measures for overweight control, life cycle assessments, and traffic planning for heavy traffic roads. The guest editors of this special issue are confi dent that this collection of highly relevant and impactful contributions will be of interest to many diverse audiences, be they in academia or industry. We are grateful to have achieved such a high quality collection of papers and would like to thank the authors for their contributions. We would also like to thank the chief editor and staff in the editorial office of the Journal of Testing and Evaluation for their assistance during the course of organizing this special issue. Furthermore, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their rigorous review. We would like to encourage the whole field to continue the progress in all fronts related to heavy duty pavement and bridge deck pavement.