New Technologies for Measuring Pavement Quality

Traditional quality control testing of new pavement layers typically consist of localized random testing of layer density. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) typically uses the nuclear density gauge to determine these density measurements. Because of regularity concerns, along with the gap between design and construction created by the practice of designing a pavement based on stiffness and then accepting construction based on density, TxDOT desired evaluation of new test methods that could potentially verify the achievement of design parameters in the field. In the course of this project, the Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) recommended focus on new full coverage devices. These devices test virtually 100 percent of the pavement area.