Evaluation of High-Performance Noise-Reducing Asphalt Layers Using Accelerated Pavement Testing

The goal of an optimal wearing course is to provide safety, comfort, and resistance while minimizing the impact on the environment. It must have excellent skid resistance, durability, and acoustic properties. Some of those functions are antinomic and thus difficult to integrate into the current state of the art. The module “Enrobé du Futur” (Future Asphalt Mix) of the I-STREET (Systemic Innovation serving Ecological and Energy Transitions in road transport infrastructures) project, led by Ademe, the French agency for environmental transition, aims to develop and characterize a multifunctional wearing course. A large experimental program was carried out, involving the evaluation of 10 asphalt mix designs. Two innovative acoustic mixes, as well as a traditional one, were selected from this program. A full-scale experiment was then carried out on the fatigue carousel of Université Gustave Eiffel, an APT (accelerated pavement testing) facility located on the Nantes campus in France, to validate the good on-site behavior of selected materials. After the application of 200,000 cycles of 65-kN half-axle loads, simulating 10 years of urban traffic, the final properties of the test sections were evaluated, including rutting, surface characteristics, and acoustic properties. The APT results confirmed the good durability of the mixes properties under traffic loading.