Integrated use of GPR and conventional methods for continuous pavement condition invesigations : a case study of the QEW Rehabilitation and Widening Project.

The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) through St. Catharines, Ontario, was originally constructed in the 1930's as a four-lane divided highway with concrete pavements and grassed median. Through the 1950's and 1960's, many of the original at-grade intersections were replaced with grade separated interchanges and the Garden City Skyway was constructed to facilitate travel over the Welland Canal. This portion of the QEW has been resurfaced with asphalt concrete overlays a number of times since the 1950's with the most recent one being carried out in 2004. However, very limited historical records exist for the pavement structure within this heavily trafficked section of QEW. This paper presents the results of the integration of conventional investigation methods (visual condition survey, boreholes, and asphalt coring) with GPR to generate detailed pavement condition information which was used in developing cost-effective pavement rehabilitation measures for a section of this important traffic corridor. For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD number E211521.