Overlay Design in Mexican Roads

Abstract

The rehabilitation of roads is not a simple task. This process requires systematic techniques to evaluate the current state of the road as well as techniques to select the most plausible reinforcement works. This work describes the studies and evaluation process to rehabilitate a highway located in the east access of the city of Guadalajara, the second largest
city in Mexico. Particularly, the works focused on the left body of the Zapotlanejo- Guadalajara highway which experiences high volumes of heavy transit. The recycling technique was chosen to reinforce the highway. The recycling works uses recovered material in the formation of the hydraulic base as well as the material used in the asphalt surface of the new pavement. This paper describes the works performed before the rehabilitation works. These works include the results of the superficial evaluation, the structural analysis, the reinforcement design, the constructive procedure, and the performance studies covering ten years of successful operation of the highway.