Cracking and seating is becoming a popular technique for reducing reflective cracks in asphalt overlays over deteriorated concrete pavements. Indiana initiated an experimental project on i-74 in the spring of 1984 to study the potential of cracking and seating. The performance of the asphalt overlay is described 5 years after implementing the technique. Cracking and seating prevented at least 75% of the reflective cracks that normally occur at 5 years of service life.Adding fibers to the asphalt overlay mixture over cracked and seated sections resulted in further prevention of reflective cracks, maintained the structural strengths both of the pavement and of its support, and may have reduced the formation of blowups. Furthermore, thenumber of blowups per mile in the cracked and seated sections was reduced by 50% over the control sections, which were not cracked and seated. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1268, Highway maintenance operations and research 1990.
Abstract