"Perpetual Pavement" is the name coined to describe a three-layer, flexible pavement design and construction concept.

Application of the concept produces a deep-strength asphalt pavement that can resist structural fatigue distress for a long time (at least 50 years) and, thus, results in a long-lived pavement. These long-lasting structural bases can be economically maintained by replacing just the surface, never needing total removal and replacement.

Many Ohio agencies have expressed interest in the Perpetual Pavement concept because of its potential to avoid disruptive future reconstruction.

Read the Perpetual Pavement Synthesis for a full treatment of the knowledge base for perpetual pavements.

Flexible Pavements of Ohio worked with the Ohio DOT to develop a demonstration project, Wayne County, US 30, the Wooster Bypass,(ODOT project 44-2004), which was open to traffic in December, 2005.

This project was described in an article in the Spring 2004 Ohio Asphalt magazine, "ODOT Tests the Perpetual Pavement Concept".

The three-layer asphalt Perpetual Pavement is on the westbound lanes. The perpetual pavement design consists of 4 inches of item special, fatigue resistant base layer; 9 inches of item 302, asphalt concrete base; 1.75 inches of item 442 Superpave intermediate course and topped with 1.5 inches of item 856, SMA surface. 

Ohio University is evaluating the performance of the perpetual pavement under three associated research projects. The Ohio University research team installed the pavement data acquisition instruments as the construction progressed. The instrumentation includes a weigh-in-motion scale; a self-contained weather station; gauges to measure pavement loads, strains and deflections and to monitor temperatures and moisture in the pavement and subgrade.

For information on the structural design of the ODOT Perpetual Pavement project, see the presentation made by Ohio University’s Dr’s Sargand and Kim.

For a description of the test results on the I-77 Perpetual Pavement project, see the article by Dr. Shad Sargand from the Summer, 2004 issue of Ohio Asphalt, "Perpetual Pavement- Validating the Design" ; the presentation by Dr. Shad Sargand at the 2006 FPO Annual Meeting, "Wayne US-30 Perpetual Pavement - Lessons Learned" and the various magazine articles listed below.

Ohio has received five national Perpetual Pavement awards. To view the history of the perpetual pavement awards visit the Asphalt Pavement Alliance's Perpetual Pavement webpage.

For further details of the Ohio experience click the view our archive of past newsletters and Ohio Asphalt Magazines. The progress of Ohio’s perpetual pavements were chronicled in articles in the Sept 2001, Dec 2001, Mar 2002, Jun 2002, Oct 2002, July 2003 and Nov 2003 newsletters and the Winter, Spring and Summer, 2004, Summer 2005, and Spring 2007 issues of Ohio Asphalt.

Also, view various conference presentations regarding "Perpetual Pavement' on the Conference Presentations page.

For more information on Perpetual Pavements, visit the Perpetual Pavements section of Asphalt Pavement Alliance's webpage.