A report published by the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) adds to the growing library of data and resources on the resilient aspects of asphalt pavements.

In NCAT Report 21-02, Asphalt Pavement: A Critically Important Aspect of Infrastructure Resiliency, authors Benjamin F. Bowers and Fan Gu provide an in-depth literature review of asphalt pavements in the context of resilience, along with a list of tools for resilience. They also identify resilient practices associated with asphalt pavements, such as fast construction to rapidly repair roads that are damaged during extreme events, perpetual pavement design to harden critical corridors and leveraging maintenance schedules to incorporate resilience adaptations.

Events impacting pavement resilience include flooding, sea level rise, snow events and droughts. The report includes related case studies examining the Alaska earthquake of 2018 and the Iowa flooding of 2019. It also shares highlights from a 2019 asphalt pavement resilience workshop attended by contractors, asphalt pavement associations, agencies and academics.

In addition to funding the NCAT report in partnership with State Asphalt Pavement Associations, NAPA offers a growing list of resources on asphalt pavement resilience: videos, webinars and additional reports. Visit AsphaltPavement.org/Resilience to examine and implement all the available resources, particularly in the context of increased focus on resilience in proposed highway legislation, procurement and funding.

(Reprinted with permission from the National Asphalt Pavement Association.)