Essay On Asphalt Pavements

Roads are built with several layers such as sub-grade, sub-base, base and surface layer and these layers together constitute to road pavements. Pavements can be constructed from different materials and mixtures of materials consisting of gravel, bitumen, stone, concrete or improved soils. The choice of materials and thickness of the pavement layers are determined by the expected traffic density.

In road pavement development in the Philippines, the most common materials used to maintain the quality of roads is the asphalt. The asphalt technology continues to explore technological improvements that will enhance the material’s performance, efficiency, cost effectiveness, and environmental considerations. The concept of warm mix asphalt, as an example, has been considered to decrease the bituminous mixture temperatures without compromising the industrial process of producing asphalt pavements that will help lessen greenhouse gases emissions.

Since the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, lahar has been abundant in Region 3 specifically in the area of Pampanga. To utilize its use, many construction materials made up of lahar, such as hollow blocks, have been developed as a cheap source. Many researchers have also considered the use of recycled materials to develop cheaper construction

Asphalt uses crude oil that contributes to pollution and in terms of cost, it becomes expensive due to poor reliability and high cost of maintenance. Soil has been the base course used in the asphalt technology. And these soil stabilizations used Portland cement and cement-fly ash, lime and lime- fly ash, fly ash and fly ash with cement or lime, bitumen and tar, cement kiln dust (CKD). For so many years, additives have been developed for soil stabilization purposes. Stabilizers used were polymers based product, copolymer based products, sodium and calcium chlorides, and fiber