Development and Evaluation of Sustainable Bituminous Paver Blocks

Abstract

Most road surfaces globally are constructed using bituminous materials. The construction of new roads and the maintenance of existing ones demand a huge amount of virgin natural aggregates. Depletion of resources that takes place during the construction of the road has an impact on cost and also on the environment. Hence, there is a need to reduce virgin aggregate use for bituminous pavement construction. This can be achieved by utilizing sustainable materials such as marble waste and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in hot mix asphalt (HMA)-type road construction. This research work is focused on sustainable development goal (SDG) 12, exclusively on the target number 12.5 which describes the recycling and reuse of materials. However, no investigations were seen to be reported on the integrated utilization of sustainable materials and RAP in bituminous paver blocks. The bituminous mixes were evaluated based on strength and compared with the control mix in this study. Bituminous paver blocks were then cast using sustainable materials and tested in the laboratory to assess the performance of the blocks through a compression test, Cantabro loss test, and wheel rut test. The test results gave satisfactory values; hence, these bituminous blocks can be used for service maintenance of the pavement structures. The study indicates that using sustainable material along with RAP in blocks can provide an eco-friendly, easily maintainable pavement system which makes it a key approach to SDG 9 as well, in terms of innovative infrastructure solutions.