Long-Life Pavement for Users of an International Roadway in New Mexico

Abstract

A 36-lane-mile (60 lane-km) international roadway was rehabilitated in the United States of America (USA) during 2018 by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) to provide uninterrupted long-life pavement performance for commercial users of the roadway. The southern border of the USA with the country of Mexico marks the starting point of New Mexico State Road 136 (NM 136), a four-lane divided roadway that carries heavily-loaded trucks associated with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), formerly the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Truck traffic in the dual north- and south- bound lanes of this roadway is especially high on the 9-mile (15-km) section of NM 136 between the international border and an intermodal railway facility located in the USA state of New Mexico. Prior to this rehabilitation project, the structural cross-section of NM 136 consisted of 4.5 to 6.0 inches (110 to 150 mm) of asphalt on 5.0 to 6.0 inches (130 to 150 mm) of coarse-grained soils. Prior to this project on NM 136, NMDOT had very little experience with concrete pavements and none with continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCPs). The structural design for this rehabilitation project utilized the existing asphalt pavement as a satisfactory base for the CRCP by milling 1.5 inches (40 mm) of the existing asphalt concrete (AC) pavement and applying a 1.5-inch (40-mm) AC levelling course followed by the CRCP. This paper presents the design and construction related details of the NM 136 CRCP project.