Reuse of Aspahlt as a Contribution to More Sustainability in Maintenance Management - Case Study of a Major German City

Abstract

Financial resources for road maintenance are regularly among the largest expenditure items in public budgets. For this reason, a sustainable asset management system has been set up in the Münster Department of Mobility and Civil Engineering for several years to make objective and sustainable decisions. In view of the impending climate changes and the resulting reduction in the service life of asphalt roads, the question arises as to how far today's asphalt roads will meet future requirements and how far today's assumptions for forecasts in maintenance management will hold up in the future. An important component is to increase the reuse rates in asphalt road construction beyond the current set of regulations without reducing the service life of the road. This is because the more recycled asphalt with heavily aged bitumen is used in production, the poorer the quality of the resulting bitumen contained in the asphalt mix. For this purpose - based on bitumen and asphalt tests in the laboratory - various test sections in asphalt construction with a total of 20 different asphalt mix variants in asphalt wearing courses, asphalt binder courses and asphalt base courses on service roads, residential and access roads as well as on main roads have been successfully realized. Some results of laboratory, control, and performance testing are presented here, as well as implications for maintenance management.