See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307373551

RESEARCH OF ASPHALT PAVEMENT RUTTING

ON NATIONAL ROADS IN VIETNAM

Article August 2016

CITATIONS READS

0 733

2 authors, including:

Xuan Luu Le
University of Transport and Communications
1 PUBLICATION 0 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Xuan Luu Le on 30 August 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 RESEARCH OF ASPHALT PAVEMENT RUTTING ON NATIONAL
ROADS IN VIETNAM
Paper identification number: AYRF2016-012
THAO Dinh Nguyen1, LUU Xuan Le2
1
PhD, Senior Lecturer, Highway and Airport Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering
University of Transport and Communications
Telephone: +84 912127577, Fax: +84 437662250
E-mail: nguyendinhthao@utc.edu.vn
2
Lecturer, Mechanics of Materials Section, Department of Civil Engineering
University of Transport and Communications
Telephone: +84 978 969 192
E-mail: xuanluuuct@gmail.com

Abstract
Rutting of asphalt pavement is defined as longitudinal surface depression in the wheel path. This is
one of the main deformation problems of asphalt pavement. In recent years in Vietnam, scale and severity
of rutting on asphalt pavement keep increasing significantly on national roads, according to reports of
Directorate for Roads of Vietnam (DRVN), the central road authority at in Vietnam. Such pavement
distress takes negative effects on the traffic in both safety and riding comfort as well as the quick
deterioration of pavement leading to the un-expected shortening of its life span. It is understood that there
are variety of causes leading to rutting of asphalt pavement such as material characteristics for both
component materials of asphalt mixture and asphalt concrete, traffic intensity, environment, re-compaction
or re-consolidation of pavement layers and subgrade under heavy load, and maintenance as well. Beside the
general information of road network in Vietnam and pavement conditions surveyed by pavement inspection
car, the paper presents fundamental mechanism of pavement rutting and our recommendations for
countermeasures in short-term and long-term solutions taking into account the current practices in Vietnam.

Keywords: Rutting, asphalt pavement, pavement condition, pavement defect.

1. Introduction
As a result of development of Vietnam Vehicles growth in Vietnam
national economy, the numbers of vehicles have 1,800
increased significantly in recent years that lead to
1,600
higher demand of increasing road system. The
growth of vehicle numbers is shown on Figures 1. 1,400
In comparison with other countries, such number is 1,200
Thousand unit

quite small for the nation with population of around 1,000

ninety million. However, the number of vehicle
trips is quite high especially on the trunk roads of 800
national road network with more operation of heavy 600
trucks and large buses. 400
As can be seen in the Figure 1, the number
of vehicles almost remained unchanged in the 200
period from 1918 to 1962 followed by increasing 0
1926
1918

1945
1962
1975
2000
2007
2008
2012
2013

dramatically each year. According to traffic vehicle

statistic in 2013, there are 2,388,717 vehicles of
cars, buses and trucks. Definitely, in order to meet Car Bus + Truck
demands of vehicle users, expanding road system,
also enhancing road quantity and maintenance,
treatment should considered carefully. Fig.1 Growth of vehicles in Vietnam in the period
1918-2013

1

Fig.2 Growth of road network in Vietnam in the
period 1985-2012
Regarding road pavement, five types of
pavement structures comprising of cement
concrete, asphalt concrete, bituminous surface
treatment pavements, and unpaved pavements of
gravel and earth are applied in Vietnam with the
shares as shown in Figure 3. During the period
from 1985 to 2012, many efforts and achievement
of the road sector have been recognized including
the upgrading of road pavement that reduces the
numbers of unpaved roads dramatically. On the
national road network, asphalt concrete becomes
very popular for pavements to meet demands of
riding comfort and the durability.
It is no doubt about good performance of
asphalt concrete pavement. However, there also
exist typical distresses of the pavement such as
fatigue cracking and deformation as the result of its
sensitiveness or low stability under temperature
condition. And permanent deformation or rutting is
the most critical distress that challenges road
engineers and road operators. In many cases, it is
very hard to find solutions for such deterioration
but only short-term countermeasures.
Fig.3 Sharing of pavement types during the period
1985-2012 in Vietnam (in kilometer)
Unfortunately, pavement rutting has
become very popular in many trunk roads in
Vietnam recently with its severity in both
expanding scope and critical scale. This problem
extensively impacts to society, damages road
pavement asset and increases vehicle operation
costs (VOC) as well as reduces road level of service
and traffic safety as following major concerns:
Traffic safety: For vehicles, changing lanes
becomes hazardous, and there is the risk of loss
of control. When water concentrates in the
wheel paths potential of ice forming emerge
and reduction of skid resistance in combination
with hydroplaning. Longer braking distance of
vehicles becomes a potential hazard.
Driving comfort and VOC: Rut influents
steering accuracy and comfort that can lead to
accident. Increase in pavement roughness or
unevenness also raises costs for fuel
consumption and vehicle maintenance beside
the un-expected increase of travel time.
Burden for maintenance budget: treatment for
pavement rutting is not a simple repair and in
many case, replacement or renewal seems to be
the unique measure that is so costly. That is not
only the big concern of road operators but
many tax payers. Such costly priority for
critical deteriorated pavements of rutting makes
barrier for approaching to preventive
maintenance because of the increasing long list
of road sections in need of corrective
maintenance.
Under increasing problem of pavement
rutting in Vietnam, intensive studies and researches
are demanded. And this research is one of them.
2. Research Methodology
The research had been conducted by the
combination of literature reviewing to understand
the fundamental mechanism of pavement rutting
and treatment practices, and the assessment of
current pavement conditions on national roads in
Vietnam by surveying to figure out the major
causes for making recommendations of short-term
countermeasures and long-term solutions.
3. Literature Review
3.1. Definitions
3.1.1. Asphalt concrete pavement
Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt,
blacktop, or pavement in North America, and
tarmac or bitumen macadam in Great Britain and
2
Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to
surface roads, parking lots, and airports. It consists
of mineral aggregate bound together with asphalt,
laid in layers, and compacted. The process was
refined and enhanced by Belgian inventor and U.S.
immigrant Edward de Smedt [1].
3.1.2. Rutting
Rutting is defined as a longitudinal surface
depression in the wheel path [2].
3.1.3. Basic Materials in Asphalt concrete
Aggregate
Aggregate is the main component of any
asphalt pavement. American Society Testing
Materials (ASTM) defines aggregates as a granular
or coarse material in the form of mineral such as
crushed stone, sand and gravel. This mechanically
stable framework primarily contributes to the load-
supporting capacity of the pavement structure.
Aggregate is the main component of an asphalt
mix, generally consists of 90 to 95 percent by
weight and 75 to 85 percent by volume. (Asphalt
Institute, 2007)
Asphalt
The different names are used for asphalt in
different countries like binder, bitumen. The
Asphalt Institute (2007) describes asphalt as
viscous liquids or solids mainly consisting of
hydrocarbons and their derivatives, which are
soluble in Carbon disulfide (CS2). The asphalt is
also called viscos-elastic material. It means the
asphalt behavior changes with change in
temperature or loading time. Modified asphalt
such as polymer modified asphalt are
recommended to improve resistance of asphalt
against rutting and thermal cracking (Moghaddam,
et al, 2011).
3.2. Rutting Literature Review
Road pavements are mostly made of
flexible pavements. The pavements are exposed to
various traffic loads, changeable climatic cycles,
and different soil characteristics of roadbed, which
may result in deterioration of pavement layers. The
deterioration either can be cracks, deformations, or
other failures that mainly locate around the wheel
tracks especially where the soil bearing capacity
was weakened during highly varied climatic
temperatures.
Christos Andrea Drakos. (2003) [3]
Rutting can be the result of permanent
reduction in volume (consolidation, traffic
densification), permanent movement of the
materials at constant volume (plastic deformation
due to shearing), or combination of both. (Christos
Andrea Drakos, 2003). This mode of failure
reduces serviceability and creates the hazard of
hydroplaning because of accumulated water in the
wheel-path ruts. Rehabilitation of rutted pavements
usually involves asphalt concrete (AC) overlay,
recycling, or replacement of surface course or all
structural layers.
Wang, H., Zhang, Q., and Tan, J. (2009) [4]
Bituminous concrete plastic properties
contribute to permanent deformation under repeated
loading. Development of rutting is caused by a
combination of densification and shear-related
deformation with an increasing number of load
applications and may occur in any layer of a
pavement structure. (Wang, H., Zhang, Q., and Tan,
J. (2009) [4].
O Flaherty. (1988) [5]
The deterioration may occur due to lateral
plastic deformations especially in high temperature
in unstable wearing course or sub grade soil (O
Flaherty, 1988) [5].
Brown ER, Hemant M. (1993) [6] and Mahrez
A. (2008) [7]
These studies indicated that the rutting is
usually influenced by the use of excessive binder
content and improper aggregate gradation (Brown)
[6]. This excessive binder essentially results in low
air void and causes a loss of mechanical friction in
the mineral skeleton and eventually leads to a
greater level of plastic flow in bituminous
pavement matrix (Mahrez, 2008) [7]. Varied
temperature, adhesion of bitumen with aggregate,
speed of vehicle, amount and distribution of traffic,
and surface contour are important factors to create
rutting in pavements.
H. Y. Katman. (2006) [8]
Shear deformations resulting from high
shear stresses in the upper portion of bituminous
layer appear to be the primary cause of rutting in
flexible pavements. Repeated applications of these
stresses under conditions of comparatively low mix
stiffness lead to the accumulation of permanent
deformations at the pavement surface (Katman,
2006) [8]
3

Canadas Guide to Sustainable Municipal
Infrastructure - NRC CNRC. (2003) [9]
This material has indicated types of rutting.
In which, there are three basic types of asphalt
pavement rutting: surface wear rutting, structural
rutting, instability rutting. Types of asphalt
pavement rutting are shown in Figure 4.
Surface wear rutting
The surface wear rutting forms only in
asphalt top layer, due to progressive loss of coated
aggregate particles from the pavement surface,
Fig.4 Types of asphalt pavement rutting [9]
Instability structure
The instability structure rutting forms only
in asphalt layers and is related with asphalt mixture
mechanical properties, air voids content and
mixture resistance to rutting. Weak asphalt layers
(weak aggregate structure, excessive bituminous,
moisture damage) are potential causes due to its
low shearing capacity.
3.3. Pavement Condition Survey
The cooperation project for capacity
enhancement in road maintenance was approved by
Japanese Government in 2011 based on Vietnamese
Governments request. Enhancement of planning
capacity for road maintenance by development a
new pavement management system (PMS) is the
major component that requires for preparation of
PMS data set consisting of pavement condition
data.
Within the project, automatic technology
for pavement data collection has been introduced
and applied using automated survey vehicle at
highway speed to increase productivity and
improve data quality. Data is recorded and stored
which is caused by combined environmental and
tires influence. This problem is not significant
when usage of studded tires is controlled.
Structural rutting
The structural rutting is affects in all
structure layers and is related with an appropriate
pavement design and construction quality. Usually
is reflection of permanent deformation within
granular base layers and subgrade. Weak
subgrades, poor drainage combination with heavy
traffic loading are potential causes.
continuously during the survey for all individual
sections of 100 lane-meters long except pavement
crack ratio that will be calculated based on
pavement image analysis. The survey work had
been conducted during the period from February
2012 and March 2013 to collect data for national
routes in the northern Vietnam with total length of
2,303 km corresponding to 4,606 lane-kilometers in
both directions. Figure 5 shows a model of road
surface conditions survey vehicle.
Fig.5 Pavement Inspection Car supplied by PASCO
Corporation of Japan
4
 Beside three pavement indicators of IRI, Depth of
Number of Percentage
Accumulative
rutting, cracking, some other data are also collected rutting Percentage
Segment (%)
during survey such as road coordinators and road (mm) (%)
front images with capture interval of five meters, [40 ; 50) 3012 05.69 84.60
locations of road facilities, and some inventory [50 ; 60) 1566 02.96 87.56
data. Figure 6 shows scale of each Regional Road [60 ; 80) 1616 03.05 90.61
[80 ; 100) 683 01.29 91.90
Management Bureaus in Vietnam.
[100 ; 150) 315 00.60 92.50
RUT 150 114 00.22 92.72

Overall, the pavement rutting is very

popular, over 92.72 percent of segments appeared
rutting with depth over 10 mm. Rutting from 10
mm to 30 mm was the most popular with 64.49
percent. The percentage of segments which have
depth of rutting over 50 mm was 8.12 p (equivalent
4,294 segments with total length of 430 km; rutting
over 100 mm was around 0.81 percent occurred on
429 segments with total length of 43 km; rutting
over 150 mm was 0.22 percent equivalent to 114
segments with total length of 11.4 km.
Depth of rutting
%

40
34.13
35
30.36
30
25
20
Fig.6 Jurisdiction area of regional authorities for 15 11.75
national roads on the main land (Regional Road 10 5.69 3.05 0.6
Management Bureaus_RRMBs) 5 2.67 2.96 1.29
0 0.22
4. Results 0 100<RUT<150
150<RUT
RUT<0

40<RUT<50

80<RUT<100
0<RUT<10
10<RUT<20
20<RUT<30
30<RUT<40

50<RUT<60
60<RUT<80

4.1. Data collected in northern region within

jurisdiction RRMB-I
The total length of national roads under
management of RRMB-I is 2,303 km
corresponding to 4,606 lane-kilometers in both Depth (mm)
directions. After analyzing data of pavement
condition collected by pavement inspection car, the Fig.7 Distribution of pavement rutting in
rut depths of 52,925 lane segments (100m for each percentage
segment in average) under RRMB-Is jurisdiction 4.2. Rutting situation on national roads in
are shown in Table 1 and Figure 7. other regions
Table 1 Distribution of rutting depth in RRMB-I Surveying the pavement condition by
inspection car had been conducted in the
Depth of Accumulative
rutting
Number of Percentage
Percentage
northern region within jurisdiction of RRMB-I
Segment (%) as the pilot region for studying in the JICA
(mm) (%)
[0 ; 10) 1416 02.67 02.67 project. However, for national roads in other
[10 ; 20) 18061 34.13 36.80 regions, pavement rutting had been surveyed
[20 ; 30) 16066 30.36 67.16 by conventional measure.
[30 ; 40) 6219 11.75 78.91

5
 Fig.8 NH.1 near Vinh City in RRMB-II
The pavement condition data surveyed on
national roads under RRMB-IIs jurisdiction in the
central region of Vietnam shows the total length of
sections with rutting is around 70 km of 620 km
surveyed, equivalent to 13 percent. In particular,
sections of national highway No.1 (NH.1) or Asia
Highway No.1 (AH.1) in the central region near
Vinh City have been facing critical rutting with the
maximum depth of more than 100mm. On these
sections, pavement structure is identical with the
asphalt surface consisting of 50mm of wearing
course and 70mm of binder course. Survey was
conducted at the pavement age of around ten years.
h1 = 120 mm
h2 = 150 mm
h3 = 300 mm
h4 > 800 mm
Fig.9 Typical flexible pavement structure on NH.1
Quite similar to RRMB-II, jurisdiction
of RRMB-III also locates in the central region
of Vietnam with the hot weather of higher
temperature and longer sunny time. Pavement
rutting in the form of plastic flow occurs on
many truck roads with high traffic intensity
especially on NH.1. The total length of sections
with rutting is over 90 km of 593 km surveyed,
equivalent to 15 percent.
Fig.10 NH.1 from Binh Dinh to Phu Yen
Roads under management of RRMB-IV are
mainly located in the southern delta or Mekong
River delta with the core region of Ho Chi Minh
city and other neighborhood provinces that form the
most dynamic and industrial area of the nation.
Traffic demand and transportation volume in Ho
Chi Minh City region are very challenging for the
road infrastructure with the high number of heavy
trucks and container-trailers. Hence, rutting is very
popular on such main and industrial roads heading
to ports and industrial zones. Plastic flow is also the
main category of pavement rutting.
Fig.11 East-West Highway, Ho Chi Minh City
5. Evaluation causes of Pavement rutting on
national roads in Vietnam
Rutting is a typical defect of asphalt
concrete pavement in term of deformation. There
are variety of factors and causes of rutting such as
material characteristics, traffic loading intensity,
impact of environment, re-consolidation of
pavement layers or subgrade under heavy load,
technical design, technical treatments, etc. And
there exist many uncertainties need being clarified
for enhancing pavement quality or its performance.
For example, among many potential causes of
pavement rutting, quality of imported bitumen for
6
asphalt concrete is one of the big concerns that
requires for strict control.
According to above rutting literature
review, previous studies indicated three types of
rutting: (i) surface wear rutting, (ii) structural
rutting and (iii) instability rutting. In which, if the
pavement was compacted to higher density during
construction, their surface wear during the
application of wheel loads is unlikely; Survey data
of pavement condition and rutting collected
nationwide shows that rutting defect is very popular
on the truck roads even on newly constructed roads
with operation time of just several months. On
other hand, the subgrade on different roads is not
same. Therefore causes for subgrade layers are not
considered in this case. This paper focuses on
characteristic of asphalt structure layers which is
relevant to instability structure rutting type. For
such material of asphalt concrete on pavement
surface, rutting resistance is the most important
feature. Figure 12 summarizes the factors in four
main groups influencing to rutting resistance of
asphalt layer.
Fig.12 Factors affect to rutting resistance of
Asphalt layers [13]
5.1. Evaluation effect of Design and
Construction Asphalt concrete pavement to
rutting in Vietnams national roads
Before 2011, construction of asphalt
pavement in Vietnam must conform to the required
specification regulated in the Specification for
Construction of Asphalt Concrete Pavement and
Acceptance Coded 22TCN249-98 Standard [10]. In
this standard, rutting resistance has not been taken
into account. The standard was upgraded in 2011 as
new Code TCVN8819-2011 Standard namely
Specification for Construction of Hot Mix Asphalt
Concrete Pavement and Acceptance [11]. Rutting
resistance of asphalt layers have been considered in
this version by setting the minimum rut depth of
asphalt concrete under Hamburg Wheel-Tracking
Testing (AASHTO T324-04) [12].
Rutting resistance is the totally new
requirement since 2011 to verify quality of
designed mixture in term of rutting. In
consequence, it can be understood that rutting on
many old roads which had been constructed before
2011 seems to be unavoidable. Results of testing on
asphalt specimens took from existing roads show
that these specimens do not meet the requirement
on rutting resistance regulated in TCVN8819-2011
Standard (Ex, specimens collected at K47+900, K
48 +100 on NH.5 reached the rut depth of 20 mm
after just 5000 cycles, while requirement is less
than 12.5 mm after 10000 cycles) [13].
5.2. Evaluation effect of Environment
factors to rutting in Vietnams national
roads
Environmental factors have a significant
effect on pavement rutting, especially when the
surface layer is subjected to high temperature, or
when subgrade layer affected by seasonal climate
variations. In other words, the rutting of underlying
layers of pavements is affected by the low
temperature; therefore, in low temperature the frost
may lead to frost heave and reduce the bearing
capacity of these layers during thawing (OECD,
1988) [14]. Asphalt binder is sensitive to
temperature which makes the mixture stiffer during
the winter season and softer during the summer
season. For this reason, the pavement rutting risk
will decrease during the winter season and will
increase during the summer season.
Vietnam is located in the tropical climates,
hot and humid, rainy. Hot season is often around
five months (from April to September). Maximum
temperature was recorded on the pavement surface
reaches to the highest point of over 700C for long
hours in summer days especially in the north and
the central regions.
5.3. Evaluation effect of Traffic factors to
Rutting in Vietnams national roads
The repetitions of heavy traffic loads
accelerate elastic deformation in layers of asphalt
pavement, pavement foundation and roadbed also.
7
Therefore, the effect of traffic loads should be indicator for selection of proper treatment. Table 3
considered in the design process. Pavement rutting shows some practices on its severity classification.
is directly related to the magnitude and frequency Table 3 Some practices of rutting severity
of the applied truck loading. classification
Vietnams road network or road
transportation has undertaken the largest Rut depth (mm)
transportation volume in both passengers and goods Agency Low Medium High
in comparison with other available modes in severity severity severity
Vietnam such as: railway, aviation, maritime and level level level
inland water transportation modes. (See Table 2) NRC CNRC, Canada [9] 6.3 -12.7 12.7-25.4 > 25.4
Table 2 Sharing of Road Sector in Transportation Transportation
< 12.7 < 25.4 < 50.8
Market [13] information center [16]
Washington State
Proportion of road transportation in comparison with the whole Department of 6.3 -12.7 12.7 -19.1 > 19.1
transport sector - Statistic data in Year Transportation
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Ohio Department of
3.2 - 9.5 9.5 - 19.1 > 19.1
Goods (%) 64.6 65 65.7 64.9 65.7 64.8 65.9 67.6 69.8 71.8 72.9
Transportation
Texas Department of
Good 6.4 -12.5 12.7-25.2 25.4 - 50.6
(Million 145 164 192 225 265 298 339 403 456 514 585 Transportation [17]
tons) DMRB, UK [18] <6 < 11 < 20
Passengers
81.3 82.4 82.8 86.6 86.6 86.9 89.1 89.9 90.8 91 91.7
(%)
Million
The maximum of rut depth recorded on
passengers
621 677 728 931 1042 1173 1332 1473 1629 1761 2011
Vietnam National roads were recorded over 100
mm. Rutting from 10 mm to 30 mm was the most
According to report of DRVN [15], in popular (see Table 1, Figure 7). Based on reviewing
recent years, the over-capacity situation has practices of rutting treatment in the world, taking
happened in many trunk roads leads to the un- into account the current rutting situation,
expected increase of traffic intensity in comparison maintenance practices and institutional in Vietnam,
with the design or estimated number. Traffic data authors recommend countermeasures in short-term
indicated that 81 routes of 123 surveyed routes, and long-term solutions. For proper selection, life
actual traffic in reality is much higher than design cycle cost analysis should be considered.
traffic volume, accounting for 66 % (Figure 13).
6.1. Short-term countermeasures
It is urgent for rutting treatment occurred
on the roads for traffic safety securing and to retard
the deterioration of pavement. In order to set up
regulation or standardization for rutting treatment,
it is necessary for sufficient accumulation of
relevant data (rutting scope and scale, its
progression by monitoring, traffic volume in both
AADT and ESAL, pavement construction and
maintenance history, weather condition, traffic
accident, etc.) as the first step. Current practices on
rutting treatment also need to be synthetized and
Fig.13 The rate of over-capacity situation compared reviewed.
between the actual traffic and designed traffic View point on rutting treatment: Instability
or plastic flow rutting is quite typical in Vietnam
6. Recommendations of measures on currently that also occurs at very early state on
pavement rutting newly constructed pavements. Such distress
Rutting is one of the typical distresses of strongly relates to pavement failure and its severity
asphalt pavement that has been intensively studied depends on failure situation and affecting factors
in the world. Severity level of rutting is the such as air temperature, traffic intensity and so
forth. Hence, in principle it is understood that such
pavement failure should be treated completely by

8
replacement or renewal. However, for more
economic, maximum utilization of such damaged
pavement at an acceptable level of service should
be considered. By reviewing current practices of
pavement maintenance, rutting situation, taking into
account of local conditions in Vietnam, some
recommendations are made as follows
Low severity level (rut depth less than 15 mm):
This problem is not significant. Keep
monitoring with enhancement the vehicle load
control for overloading elimination, and
prompt routine maintenance especially
drainage condition.
Medium severity level (rut depth: 15 30 mm):
filling rut paths by ordinary bituminous
mixture should be applied together with
vehicle load control for overloading
elimination, and prompt routine maintenance
especially drainage condition. Traffic signs
should be focused with speed limitation if
necessary.
High severity level (rut depth > 30 mm): This
problem should be considered carefully.
Cutting and overlaying with hot-mix asphalt
(resurfacing) is the most common
rehabilitation method in the worst cases.
Depending on the structural adequacy of the
pavement, it is possible to apply intermediate
measure by removal a portion of the humps by
cutting to reduce rut depth in association with
filling the rut paths for traffic safety. Simple
surface dressing on scratched areas can be
applied in necessary. In case of cutting and
replacement, new asphalt mixture must be
controlled strictly to secure for its durability
and rutting resistance to avoid re-occurrence of
rutting. High performance asphalt like polymer
modified asphalt can be applied properly.
6.2. Long-term solutions on pavement
rutting
Wide and serious rutting on pavements in
Vietnam recently creates new demand and
necessity for reviewing current practices relevant to
pavement engineering in a comprehensive scope
consisting of material selection and control, asphalt
mixture design, structural design, asphalt
production, pavement construction and quality
control, operation and maintenance. Within such
comprehensive and intensive studies, it should be a
real renovation in pavement engineering. Currently,
many studies and researches are under
implementation including revision of technical
standards and specifications and many testing. It is
expected that long-term solutions will be made for
securing quality and performance of road pavement
in general and asphalt concrete in particular with
high durability, good rutting and fatigue cracking
resistance with higher surface performance in
texture or skid resistance. It seems that new
technologies and new materials will be proposed as
the history of pavement engineering development
in the world. However, selection of such new
materials and technologies should be seriously
considered for proper application. Life cycle cost
analysis should be introduced for making proper
solutions among alternatives.
7. Conclusion and future work
Rutting is a typical defect of asphalt
pavement and it has occurred widely on many trunk
roads in Vietnam. It is no doubt about its many
negative effects. Thus for road engineers, it seems
that they are in the war against pavement rutting
with their all efforts to mitigate or handle the
problem.
For such critical situation, the Ministry of
Transport in Vietnam and road authority, DRVN,
have taken prompt actions at their full
responsibility including their efforts to gather
intelligent resources from many researchers and
experts both domestic and oversea.
Focal directions and teams for researching
in five main fields (materials and asphalt mixture;
structural analysis and design; asphalt production
and mixing plant; construction technology and
quality control; operation and maintenance) have
been established. Now we are in the middle,
however some initial outputs of solutions or
measures for rutting control have come out and
were put into application in reality. Enhancement
on material test and mixture design is the first
achievement. The second one is the success on
vehicle load control as the result from traffic law
enforcement and new establishment of many
vehicle weighting stations along road arteries in
Vietnam. Awareness from road users, drivers and
transportation companies on complying with the
rule is also improved that mitigates the overloading
situation. Concrete measures on construction
quality control and the proper operation of asphalt
mixing plants have been pointed out and applied.
Currently, revision or upgrading standard
on pavement structural design is still the big
challenging due to the insufficient R/D (research
and development) function and lacking of structural
9
 testing model. That should be paid much attention
as the target for the next phase. It is expected for
international cooperation and collaboration during
the process of renovation pavement engineering in
Vietnam.
References
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt_concrete.
[2] Miller, J. S.; Bellinger, W. Y. (2003). Distress
Identification Manual for the Long-Term
Pavement Performance Program. Fourth
Revised Edition (FHWARD-03-031), Federal
Highway Administration, McLean, VA, USA.
164p.
[3] Christos A. Drakos (2003). Identification of a
physical model to evaluate rutting performance
of asphalt mixtures, a dissertation presented to
the graduate school of the University of Florida
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of doctor of philosophy.
[4] Wang, H., Zhang, Q., and Tan, J. (2009). J.
Mater. Civ. Investigation of layer contributions
to asphalt pavement rutting. J. Mater. Civ. Eng.
21, SPECIAL ISSUE: China: Innovative Use of
Materials for Highway Construction.
[5] O'Flaherty CA. (1988). Highway Engineering
Textbook, 3rd edition. London, UK: Edward
Arnold.
[6] Brown ER, Hemant M. (1993). NCATR Report.
93-5. National Centre for Asphalt Technology,
Auburn University. Evaluation of laboratory
properties of SMA mixture.
[7] Mahrez A. (2008). Properties and performance
of stone mastic asphalt reinforced with glass
fibre [Ph.D. thesis] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya.
[8] H. Y. Katman. (2006). Effects of rubberised
bitumen on properties of porous mixes [M.S.
thesis], University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
[9] NRC CNRC. (2003). Rut Mitigation Techniques
at Intersections. Road and Sidewalks,
Federation of Canadian Municipalities and
National Research Council, Canada. 48p.
[10] 22TCN249-98. (1998). Specification for
Construction of Asphalt Concrete Pavement and
Acceptance, Ministry of Transport.
[11] TCVN8819-2011. (2011). Specification for
Construction of Hot - Mix Asphalt Concrete
Pavement and Acceptance, Ministry of
Transport.
View publication stats
[12] AASHTO Designation T 324-04. (2007).
Standard Method of Test for Hamburg Wheel-
Track Testing of Compacted Hot-Mix Asphalt
(HMA).
[13] Thao Ng. D. (2014). Evaluation to propose
short-term countermeasures and long-term
approaches for rutting defect on bituminous
pavement, Conference of Technical Transport
Science and Technology, University of
Transport Technology.
[14] OECD (1988). "Heavy Trucks, Climate, and
Pavement Damage." Road transport research,
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development; OECD Publications and
Information Centre, Paris, France, 175 p.
[15] Directorate for road of Vietnam. (2013).
Scheme on renewing the management and
maintenance of Vietnams national roads system
[16] Walker, D.; Entine, L.; Kummer, S. (2002).
Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rutting.
Asphalt Roads, Transportation Information
Center University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
26p.
[17] Texas Department of Transportation. (2011).
Pavement Design Guide. Texas Department of
Transportation, USA, 427 p.
[18] DMRB. (2008). Data for Pavement
Assessment HD 29/08. The Highways Agency;
Scottish Government; Welsh Assembly
Government; The Department for Regional
Development Northern Ireland, London, UK.
94p.
10