Initially designed as equipment to receive pavements at the moment of their inauguration, the use of the MT-15 CURVOMETER has changed over the last several years. It has become a piece of equipment used to test pavement for Spain's Highway and Airport Network and a very appropriate tool for assessing the process of laying down the layers which make up the road surface on highways and airport runways. Consisting of a 15 meter-long chain development with three sensors inserted every 5 metres, the MT-15 CURVOMETER is able to measure deflexions at 18 km/h, with precisions up to the hundredth of a millimeter (mm/100). This great capacity enables the MT-15 to carry out an initial assessment of a highway the day and even the night before the opening of the road, to obtain the point zero of the roads structural record. During the past several years, following a meticulous study caried out by the General bureau of Spains Highways that standardized deflexion tests, the CURVOMETER is now used for systematic assessment of the Highway Network and for programming pavement upgrading works. The MT-15 CURVOMETER has also been very well received by the Spanish airport administration, by adding to its list of technical achievements, minimal interference with airport operations thereby enabling a detailed assessment of a runway in a single night without having to officially shut down the runway. The MT-15s ability to test even granular surfaces is enabling assessment of bearing capacities and layer homogeneity of pavements during their construction. As a result of this ability, compacting defects can be corrected before the top layer is even laid down, thereby improving pavement quality and reducing costs of expensive subsequent repairs. (A)
Abstract