In 2013/2014, the Brisbane City Council faced a major challenge: the badly cracked main road "Toombul Road" urgently needed to be renovated. In the conventional process, this would have meant milling out a continuous 200 mm thick asphalt layer and then filling it in to repair the cracks. But the city administration wanted to be more innovative and was looking for a more cost-effective and sustainable renovation solution.
Road rehabilitation of Toombul Road in Brisbane
The main goal was to achieve the same service life with a reduced budget and asphalt thickness. Cracks in the road surface are a frequent problem, which is often treated with thick asphalt layers. Our innovative Asphalt reinforcement geogrid HaTelit has been proven to delay crack formation many times over. The city administration recognized this solution and therefore decided to reinforce the asphalt surface course with HaTelit.
The challenge: A heavily cracked arterial road required to be rehabilitated. Due to the excessive cracking history of this road associated with a cementitious pavement base, council‘s typical treatment had been consistently 200mm thick asphalt treatment as a mill & fill. The Council wanted to ascertain if they could achieve the same, or a similar performance using the innovative HaTelit asphalt reinforcement geogrid with 100mm thick asphalt, instead of 200mm, and reducing the milling depth by 100mm.
Dedicated collaboration and comprehensive analysis
Throughout the process, we worked closely with the City Projects Engineering Team and Brisbane City Council Assets. Various case studies where the HaTelit geogrid had been used successfully were consulted in advance and their data analysed. For comparison purposes and to substantiate the results, detailed records of both construction methods have been compiled.
From the conception & development, implementation, project management on site and finally the inspections after completion in April 2014, I was able to lead and participate in this successful project. The results are regularly inspected by the city administration (most recently in 2023) and presented at the International Public Works Conference in 2022, to recognize the achievement.
A strong comparison
Reinforced 100 mm thick asphalt layer, where HaTelit was installed between two no x 50mm Asphalt layers, as an alternative to the traditional method of the 200 mm thick asphalt layer
The results were overwhelming. By using HaTelit, the city government achieved the following benefits, which were confirmed Principal and Senior Engineers involved:
*CO2 calculations are based on the ISC Materials Calculator - a widely recognised and used calculator in Australia.
A success for everyone
I am proud to have been part of this innovative project. The ability to develop sustainable solutions while saving costs has had a lasting impact on my view of infrastructure projects. The confirmation by the asset owner that our method works better against cracking than the traditional treatment was an enormous success for all of us.
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the results of this project and look forward to continuing to implement similar approaches in future projects.
Yours Zehra
