The construction and maintenance of roads plays a fundamental role within the country's infrastructure, directly impacting road safety, the economy and the quality of life of its citizens. However, these elements are heavily subjected to constant and repetitive traffic loads, which highlights the need to guarantee their durability and resistance.

In recent years, motivated by the constant growth of traffic and the expansion of the road network, it has raised the need to address new challenges in the sector, among which sustainability and adaptation to climate change stand out. In this sense, MITMA has recently published Circular Order OC 2/2023 on Reuse of Bituminous Pavement and Pavement Layers.

This paradigm shift in road design and management aims to promote the use of reuse techniques compared to conventional solutions in the manufacture of bituminous mixtures. Likewise, this order proposes the incorporation of new performance testing methodologies, among which the fatigue deformation at one million cycles (ε6) stands out, which will allow determining the behavior of the pavement throughout its life in service.

At CTCON, aware of the priority strategies of the General Directorate of Highways, we are working to respond to the needs and challenges faced by the sector and, to this end, we have incorporated the Fatigue Resistance Test into our laboratory, according to UNE-EN 12697-24 standard. This test, included in Annex D (Four-point bending on prismatic specimens. 4PB-PR) consists of the application of a sinusoidal load, with the objective of creating a constant deformation on the analyzed sample.

Following the prescriptions of OC 2/2023, fatigue resistance is presented as a fundamental specification in the design of hot and semi-hot reused bituminous mixtures; which will consequently allow the incorporation of any type of reuse rate and in any traffic category.

Source

Source url: