AustStab’s Pavement Recycling and Stabilisation Guide is a key resource for information on road stabilisation and has a place on every good pavement engineer’s bookshelf.
The important go-to guide for all things stabilisation has been embraced by AustStab members and the nation’s stabilisation sector since the association updated the format and content of the guide in 2009. The latest edition of the manual was released last year.
Now, the association has reinvigorated another important stabilisation publication and is bringing it out of retirement.
Like the original Pavement Recycling and Stabilisation Guide, the Guide to Best Practice for the Construction of In-situ Stabilised Pavements was an Austroads publication. The main purpose of the guide was to provide individuals working on stabilisation jobs with a comprehensive manual detailing the base processes involved in the construction of stabilised pavements.
This guide, however, went out of print in 2003.
Greg White, AustStab Executive Officer, says there was an outcry from the association’s membership to resurrect the guide and distribute it. “Our members thought it was a good publication, but it did need to be upgraded and there weren’t any copies left out there,” he says. “They wanted to circulate it as widely as possible.”
Off the back of the consensus to republish the guide, Mr. White was tasked with updating the information within it. The result is a pocket-sized publication with relevant and up to date information for stabilised pavement construction. It is now simply known as AustStab’s In-Situ Stabilisation Construction Guide and will be formally released at this year’s annual conference.
“We updated the compaction requirements in the publication and we focused a lot on the construction considerations. We also updated information on mixing binders,” says Mr. White. “Where the Pavement Recycling and Stabilisation Guide covered design specifications and theory, the In-Situ Stabilisation Construction Guide is purely for out in the field and it can fit into your back pocket or glovebox.
“It also provides a checklist for supervisors starting a new job,” he adds.
The guide includes a basic rundown of the stabilised pavement construction process so anyone in the crew, particularly supervisors new to stabilisation, can understand what has been completed and what needs to be done.
The guide covers the entire construction process, including working environment, granular overlay, application and mixture of binders, joints, compaction, curing, trimming, production levels and sealing.
“Any guy on the team can use it, and it’s useful for any council engineers who want to know what is done down on site,” he says. “For a supervisor who has never done a stabilisation job it’s a bit daunting. This gives you a pretty good guide of what to expect and what to do.”
AustStab would like to thank Austroads for giving permission to use the information originally published in the Guide to Best Practice for the Construction of In-situ Stabilised Pavements.
The In-Situ Stabilisation Construction Guide will be formally released at this year’s annual conference and is available through AustStab. www.auststab.com.au