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Volume 9, No. 17Journal 17

DOI:https://doi.org/10.15517/cbsjb454

Published October 13, 2025

Scientific Papers

  1. Miguel Angel Benzadón, Jorge Duarte, Marcela Hernández (Author)

    Design and Implementation of a Road and Public Space Management System for Bogotá, Colombia.

    The Company TNM - Technology and Management has developed a system of road and public space management directed to the administration of the urban road network, of areas destined to pedestrian public space, as well as pedestrian and traffic bridges of the city of Bogota Colombia, which at the same time includes the pavements deterioration models by means of periodic measurement of variables that influence in that deterioration. The design of this system is oriented to provide a systematic tool that permit to the Local Administration to determine the scope of the actions of maintenance and rehabilitation on the road infrastructure and urban public space at any time, to prioritize projects and to optimize the available resources, looking to maintaining a level of service given in terms of its structural and functional condition. The main intake to carry out the management on the infrastructure of road network consists of the data of inventory and diagnosis relieved by diverse consultants, during the last 5 years, obtained using last generation technologies such as the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and the international roughness index (IRI) This information a property organized and stored in a database. Similarly, the inventory and diagnosis contains the associated infrastructure of public space, such as, decks, bus stops, pedestrian crossings, bike paths and general urban funiture. Regarding the bridge information, there is no inventory of them yet, but they have defined the variables to collect to carry out an adequate management for this infrastructure. 

  2. Hugo Bianchetto, Rodrigo Miró Recasens, Félix Pérez Jímenez (Author)

    Asphalt Mixtures. Resistance to Aging of Hot Mix Asphalt: Benefits and Limitations of the Incorporation of Commercial Fillers. Part One: Studies Based on the UCL Method.

    Many bituminous layers in pavements fail for associated problems with damage by material aging rather than damage caused by vehicle loads. In order to improve this situation, many solutions in the design that often consist in increasing the content of asphalt in the mixtures to achieve a thicker asphalt layer wrapping aggregates and to reduce the percentage of voids. Nevertheless, an excess of asphalt could generate asphalt exudation and lack of stability, as well as an increase in cost of the product. 

     Usually, asphalt road pavement specifications do not consider in a good way the factor of aging in establishing its prescriptions, insisting on characterizing the behavior of asphalts set against the mechanisms responsible for the "hardening by age", using empirical trials of simulation that only test the material working alone, not including the interaction that is produced with the other components of the mix. 

    The advantages of using additives (fílleres) specially formulated to improve resistance to aging is well known, however, many times other associated concepts are not considered but they affect the two-phase system fíller-asphalt and also have influence on a series of fundamental characteristics of the mixtures.  

    The universities de la Plata, Argentina, and technical college of Cataluña, Spain, carried out a joint research with the goal to understand some phenomena related to the aging of the asphalt and to establish guidelines of design that contribute to optimize the resistance of deterioration of the bituminous mixtures. In addition, new procedures of research were employed; the functional method "Universal of characterization of binders" (UCL®), reologic tests with the dynamic shear reometer (DSR) and techniques of macromolecular analysis as the chromatography by permeability of gels (GPC) and the spectroscopic infrared. 

    This first part of the study presents, a synthesis of the results obtained utilizing the universal method of characterization of binders, UCLⓇ. 

  3. Freddy Alberto Reyes Lizcano, María Fernanda Madrid Ahumada, Sandra Ximena Salas Callejas (Author)

    Asphalt Mixtures Modified with an Elastomer (Rubber) and an Elastomer (Milk Bag Strips with 80-100 Asphalt).

    The addition of industrial products such as rubber and plastic may constitute a pavement structure by providing asphalt mixes with better mechanical behavior and more durability. We have to be conscious that we live in the culture of using and throwing away, and in the trash of each day there are many resources that we are wasting, it is important for all of us to put in action the three “R”, reduce, reuse and recycle. By carrying out this research project we hope to achieve a reduction in the solid waste residues and additionally to improve the performance of the pavements in Colombia. In this investigation of asphalt mixtures modified with rubber and plastic, we made the dynamic characterization of the mixture with the optimal addition of plastic origination from markets of milk bags and of rubber originating from used tires, achieving a reduction on rutting of 8%, an increase of the dynamic modulus of 14%, which means for a mechanistic design of pavements an increase of 25% in durability. 

  4. Jorge Prozzi, José Pablo Aguiar (Author)

    Optimization Method for the Number of Design Gyrations Based on Relative Performance.

    The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has recently established Hamburg Wheel Tracking Device (HWTD) specification criteria for Superpave mixtures. This has introduced a performance related feature to an otherwise volumetric mix design approach structured to ensure the rutting performance of asphalt mixtures. The Superpave mixture design procedure is itself geared towards the production of ne resistant mixtures. This, together with the new HWTD performance criterion tends to promote mixtures with lower binder contents. While this is advantageous for rutting resistance, there are reports that these mixtures are prone to cracking, which is becoming the single largest problem for asphalt pavements in Texas.  

    In an attempt to produce mixes with higher binder contents to alleviate cracking problems, TxDOT has investigated the possibility of modifying the current design criteria established for Superpave mixtures, Initial research investigating the influence of lowerning the 4 percent volds in the mir anterion to 3 and aven 2.5 percent has resulted in increased optimum binder contents but has proven detrimental for those mixtures using softer binders. The Superpave misture design method does not account for mixes with stiff polymer-modified asphalts currently being used. Furthermore, the concentration of coarse aggregate in the mix and the influence of nominal maximum aggregate size are not accounted Ar 

    The study reported in this article outlines a reliability-based mixture design procedure based on a performance related approach geared towards determining revised N compaction levels to increase binder contents in asphalt mixtures without compromising rating performance An extensive experimental program has been devised to investigate the performance characteristics of asphalt mixtures designed using the revised N levels and to account for the nominal maximum aggregate and the concentration of coarse aggregate in the mix, The procedure found strong support for decreasing current levels under most conditions, except when high-volume facilities in war environments. The number of design gyrations for most condition in Texas could be lowered to 75 to 85 from improved fatigue performance, without significant loss of rutting resistance. 

  5. Luis Guillermo Loría Salazar (Author)

    Laboratory Evaluation of Modified Asphalts with Different Polymers

    The modification of asphalts with polymers from different varieties and origins is one of the most important tendencies of the present highways construction industry. 

    Polymer contributions to reological properties improvement of the asphalts have been extensively studied. However, each time that a new product is on the market, it is necessary to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the improvements that the polymer would be able to cause to the asphalt. 

    The asphalts classification methodology by performance has been constituted in the fundamental tool of analysis of asphalts; however, in the case of modified asphalts its rank of application is very limited, just as has been determined up to now. The main problem is that modified asphalts with different polymers can have the same performance, without being able to discern among the individual contribution of each polymer that would lead to choose the polymer that maximize the characteristics of the modified asphalt. 

    Today, the protocols established in the NCHRP 9-10, are implementing a series of new trials that will be able to consider which, of various modifying agents, can cause better reological asphalt conditions This: NCHRP 9-10 contribution is fundamental to determine with what polymer will be the binder performed better, given that in many cases, the selection of a modifier is based only in financial criteria, with a same performance. With this technology update, it will be able to do financial analysis considering how useful it will be to the highway. 

    This study was born with the main objective to analyze different polymers and its effect on base asphalts AC-20 and AC-30, and to determine the performance that each one has, with different polymer concentrations This information can be of great importance for highways builders to choose adequate options that the market has. The result of the first phase of this project can be found in the report LM-PL-PV-IN-18 -02 a. 

    In this second phase, the results of the analysis of the AC-30 asphalt are presented, mixed with 6 different modifying agents, and the classification of the final product will be performed by means of the classification by performance primarily, and subsequently, by means of the trials indicated by the protocol NCHRP 9-10: creep, fatigue and zero cut viscosity (Zero Shear Viscosity, ZSV, by its acronyms in English.

Technical papers

  1. Germán Valverde (Author)

    Please stop blaming the driver

    With this suggestive title, Michael Bernhard begins the article he published in the journal World Highways (Bernhard, 2003). Bernhard draws attention to the tendency of the press and official spokespersons from road authorities to focus on drivers and on measures aimed at modifying their behavior as the solution to the problem of traffic accidents, often overlooking the role and responsibility that infrastructure has in many cases.