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Rehabilitation of Taxiways, The Philippines

Project information

Project name

Rehabilitation of Taxiways Echo and Hotel, Mactan-Cebu International Airport

Location

Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island, The Philippines

Principal

Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA)

Design

MCIAA Engineering Department

Contractor

Duros Dev. Corp and Socor Construction Corp

Construction time

2019

Project details

Project description and challenge

The Mactan-Cebu International Airport is located in the city of Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island and is the second busiest airport in the Philippines. In May 2019 a project was undertaken to refurbish all taxiways due to the general poor condition of the asphalt surface. The pavement was exhibiting signs of cracking, ravelling and potholing and the surface quality was becoming an issue to both the airport operators and airlines. Of particular concern were taxiways Echo and Hotel, where the airport pavement engineering team (MCIAA) decided that additional measures, beyond a normal asphalt overlay were required. The taxiway pavement was originally a full depth asphalt construction; however, previous patching works had been executed in the form of concrete slabs. As a result the pavement structure was inhomogeneous and the surface presented different textures.

 

The installation of asphalt layers on a distressed pavement is often not an effective solution, as existing cracks and joints from the underlying structure can rapidly propagate to the new surface. This phenomenon, known as reflective cracking, directly affects the structure durability and is one of the major modes of failure in rehabilitated pavements. In areas submitted to high dynamic loads, as the case of airport taxiways, the propagation of discontinuities is even more critical. Therefore, to improve the ride quality of the pavement in question, a reflective cracking mitigation system in combination with an asphalt resurfacing was required. During the rehabilitation works in the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, the airfield movements could not be disrupted and the airport had to continue in operations. For this reason, much of the works were undertaken during night time possessions. This required a tight work timeframe with a high degree of advanced planning and organisation.

Solution

To actively retard reflective cracking from the joints and from the pavement defects that could not be treated prior to the asphalt overlay, HUESKER’s HaTelit C 40/17 asphalt reinforcement was installed between the existing asphalt pavement and the new 40 mm asphalt concrete overlay. HaTelit C 40/17 consists of an asphalt reinforcement grid made from polyester (PET) in combination with an ultra-light nonwoven geotextile backing. Both the reinforcement grid and the nonwoven have a polymer modified bituminous coating (> 65 % bitumen content), which ensures in combination with the higher aperture size an excellent bond between the asphalt layers. HaTelit structurally strengthens the pavement section by changing the response of the pavement to loading. The peak shear stresses at the edges of the cracks in the existing old pavement are reduced and the resistance to reflective cracking of the new asphalt overlay is increased.

Benefits

Through the active retardation of reflective cracking, HaTelit can significantly extend the service life of asphalt resurfaced taxiway pavements. While it may be recommended to undertake full pavement reconstruction, a successful mitigation performance can also be achieved with HaTelit where the ideal permitted working window is tight and the project requires to be ‘fast tracked’.