State of the art report: design and maintenance of residential street pavements

The available evidence suggests that for lightly trafficked residential streets a few repetitions of the heaviest loaded vehicle will control the design thickness. It appears that thickness is relatively insensitive to cumulative traffic over the range likely to use residential streets. Traffic should continue to be used as the major design parameter but it should be recognised that pavement deterioration will be strongly influenced by factors such as environment, construction and maintenance. The life of street pavements depends on the quality of the bituminous surfacing and in the case of asphalt special attention should be paid to mix composition, lay down temperature and compaction to provide a surface that is resistant to oxidation and which will act as an impermeable barrier to water penetration to the pavement and subgrade. Further research is required in the following areas related to lightly trafficked residential streets: axle loading distributions, tolerable pavement deflections for various surface treatments and tolerable levels of roughness. A need is seen for a rationalisation of pavement material specifications and the identification of pavement material specifications which predict pavement performance. It is recommended that a study of costs associated with the design, construction and maintenance of residential streets be undertaken which would identify areas where cost savings could be significant (a).