Pavement Design Optimisation at Jersey Airport: Fid-Bau Portal

Pavement Design Optimisation at Jersey Airport

Hakim, B. A. / Armitage, R. J. / Murfin, Q. A. / Elliott, R. C.

This paper describes an analytical pavement design for a new Taxiway at the Airport on Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, Great Britain. Jersey, being an island, has limited aggregate resources and high harbour dues (import tax) making the importation of materials and specialised plant expensive. Therefore optimising the pavement design and the performance of locally available materials were key to achieving best value within the Project. The Client also wanted to ensure the construction Contractor could adopt and manage the ground condition risks under a construction contract. A comprehensive ground investigation including trial pitting, laboratory testing of soil samples, in situ Dynamic Plate Bearing (DPB) and Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) tests were performed along the alignment of the new Taxiway, in order to predict the appropriate subgrade stiffness for the design. A design stiffness of 80 MPa was calculated from the DPB measured stiffnesses, using Brown's model to account for pavement confinement and the stress sensitive nature of the material under actual design aircraft loading. A laboratory test programme and site trials were carried out using local aggregates, to assess the mechanical properties of potential cement bound, bituminous and pavement quality concrete materials for use in the lower and upper pavement structure respectively. Since the designs were based on an analytical approach, the materials were specified in terms of performance rather than recipe. End product performance related testing of capping (subgrade improvement) was adopted to monitor and approve the pavement foundation during construction. The development work achieved considerable improvements in the pavement value for money and allowed the utilisation of more sustainable pavement materials with associated environmental benefits.