High-resolution assessment of road basement using ground-penetrating radar (GPR)

Abstract

Summary Road networks suffer significant structural damage caused by a variety of reasons amplified if the underlying geology induces cracks or deformations. The most common procedure to obtain information from the interior layers of the infrastructure is drilling holes in the road. However, these diagnostic tools are destructive, expensive and slow. Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) brings considerable advantages for the detection of pathologies in inner layers of the road, such as cracks in the wearing course, buried holes and settlement problems providing high-quality images of the radar signal in the interior of the structures. The objectives of the research were to carry out a study with the GPR technique of degraded road pavements to delineate the lateral and depth extent of the cracks and to identify the most problematic areas of the 1 km studied segment. The use of the GPR methods in Pont de Suert site (Spain) have provided an accurate road conditions assessment and differentiate areas with very clear anomalies, that were not visible from the surface, which can serve as a guide for the road managers to intervene before the collapse due to dissolution of gypsums sediments would occur