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Phase 1 (2005 Deadline)
Development of Guidelines for Asphalt Pavement Recycling in Pakistan
Gilbert Y. Baladi and Syed Waqar Haider, Michigan State University
Tayyeb Akram, National University of Sciences and Technology,
National Institute of Transportation
Pakistani Funding (HEC): $500,000
US Funding: $350,000
Project Dates on US Side: January 1, 2006 - December 31, 2009 (Completed)
Project Overview
Tremendous increases in vehicle traffic over the past two decades have led to high rates of pavement deterioration on the Pakistani road system. This project addressed this problem by introducing asphalt recycling technologies to Pakistan and developing guidelines for their use. Recycling involves the reuse of existing roadway materials in the cost-effective reconstruction or rehabilitation of pavements. The price of asphalt, a product of petroleum refining, has increased many times over in recent years, so finding a way to reuse it makes economic sense. There are environmental benefits as well, as recycling pavement reduces the amount of waste that must be sent to landfills. This project, which involved several collaborating researchers at each partner institution as well as linkages with industry and government, included both technical studies of asphalt materials and policy studies of the potential savings to be realized from recycling. Based on their findings, the research team proposed implementation plans for the Pakistani highway authorities and road construction industry, and these recommendations may be found in their reports available through the links below.
Progress Report Summaries
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2009 Show summary || Hide summary
The researchers already presented their findings at seven international conferences, and more than a dozen joint papers were expected. In addition, in the summer of 2009 one American and three Pakistani graduate students submitted master’s degree theses on research conducted as part of this project, and two more Pakistani students were expected to submit their theses in the spring of 2010. Although the security situation prevented Drs. Baladi and Haider from making a planned final visit to Pakistan on the project in 2009, they instead hosted their colleague Dr. Akram at Michigan State for one week in November 2009 to demonstrate testing procedures, work on their joint final report, and complete plans for implementation of their findings. Additional training of Pakistani graduate students was carried out in the fall of 2009 via videoconferencing. Now that the project has been completed, the partners plan to remain in contact as they prepare their joint publications and work to disseminate their findings and recommendations for implementation by the Pakistani highway authorities and road construction industry.
2008 Show summary || Hide summary
In March 2008 the US team again visited Pakistan to conduct a two-day workshop on construction and rehabilitation of asphalt and concrete pavements, consult with their colleagues on on-going testing and analyses, and meet with officials from the National Highway Authorities regarding the development and introduction of asphalt recycling guidelines. After participating in the August 2008 Pakistan-US S&T conference in Islamabad, US co-PI Dr. Haider also visited Risalpur again to discuss research results and help plan future activities. Over the course of 2008 this joint research team worked on pavement evaluation at dozens of selected sites in Pakistan, assessment of current pavement recycling practices, and materials characterization. Their annual report notes that “for the first time in Pakistan, the local construction materials are being characterized by using state-of-the-art equipment and state-of-the-practice testing protocols. This was only possible because of equipment procurement under this grant.”
2007 Show summary || Hide summary
In 2007, several milestones of this study were accomplished and the project was on time. For the pavement evaluation, various test sites were selected and surface condition data were collected for most of the selected pavement sections. Both non-destructive and destructive deflection testings were conducted. Two pavement recycling practices [Hot-in-place (HIR) and Cold-in-place (CIR)] were implemented in Pakistan. According to the research plan, the Pakistani research team obtained and analyzed regional climatological data and acquired and tested local paving materials (binders and aggregates).
2006 Show summary || Hide summary
Following up on a two-week training visit to Michigan State and the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University by Dr. Tayyeb Akram and three graduate students in August 2006, Dr. Gilbert Baladi and MSU co-investigator Dr. Syed Waqar Haider spent two weeks in Pakistan in December 2006 working with their colleagues at NIT as well as meeting with officials from the National Highway Administration and the local asphalt manufacturing industry. The research team also made site visits to an asphalt mixing plant and both hot and cold in-place recycling sites. The centerpiece of the visit was a three-day highway engineering workshop held December 16-18, which covered pavement design and analysis, pavement preservation and rehabilitation, road safety issues, and pavement recycling techniques. Drs. Baladi and Hyder summarized their findings and recommendations resulting from their visit and circulated them to the workshop attendees.
In addition to the training aspects, the Pakistani counterparts at NIT have received and installed more than $660,000 worth of research equipment, half funded by HEC funds awarded under this grant and half supported by NIT’s parent organization NUST as a demonstration of the institution’s strong support for the project. Thanks to this equipment, the investigators worked intensively throughout 2008 on surface distress data collection and in-situ testing of selected pavement sections.
Back to Pakistan-US Science and Technology Cooperation Program Phase 1 Grants List
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