Full scale accelerated pavement tests to evaluate the performance of permeable and skeletal soil block pavement systems

The increasing proportion of paved surface due to urbanization means that the conditions for urban trees and vegetation to survive have deteriorated. Factors such as air pollution, poor drainage, and the lack of usable soil for root growth contribute to the short life expectancy of urban trees. To meet this challenge, several permeable and "structural" or "skeletal soils" have been developed as alternatives to the typical compacted soil required to bear the weight of vehicular traffic in urban areas. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the resistance to permanent deformation of permeable and skeletal soil pavement structures based on full scale accelerated pavement tests (APT) using a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS). Interlocking paving stones of various types were used as permeable surface layer for the test structures. The results demonstrated that the permeable test structures exhibited higher permanent deformation than the corresponding impervious structures. The skeletal soil with bituminous base layer, however, produced performance comparable to the impervious reference test structures.