Synthesis of design and construction practices

A life-cycle cost analysis was performed, following VDOT guidelines, to evaluate the 

Composite pavements have been studied for many years.  They are known as semi-rigid 

Hudson and Roberts, 1981), long-life pavements (Nunn et al., 1997), and flexible composite 

pavements (Nunn, 2004).   

A composite pavement structure is defined as a structure comprising two or more layers 

two most commonly used materials that compose this composite structure are a flexible layer 

(e.g., HMA) and a rigid layer (e.g., PCC, cement-treated base [CTB], cement stabilized base 

[CSB], rolled-compacted concrete [RCC], or lean mix concrete).  There is no single definition 

applicable to composite pavements because an HMA overlay on a CTB can be considered a 

composite pavement; likewise, a thin PCC overlay on an HMA layer, known as whitetopping, 

has also been considered a composite pavement. Furthermore, a PCC surface layer applied on 

top of another PCC layer before the bottom layer has set may be considered a composite “wet on 

wet” pavement.  In this study, the composite pavement system investigated was a rigid base 

overlaid with a flexible layer as shown in example cross-sections in Figure 1.