1  Introduction

Construction quality is crucial to the long-term pavement performance.  Construction factors such as surface preparation, placement, joint construction and compaction/consolidation have an overwhelming effect on pavement performance, which cannot be ignored or compensated for in mix or structural design.  Other construction considerations such as plant operations, mix transport and quality control procedures can also directly influence pavement performance.

Pavement construction is somewhat of a combination of science and art.  Although the mix design and structural design are determined through carefully controlled experiments and equations, properly constructing a pavement can be done in many different ways, each of which may be appropriate for a specific combination of factors such as temperature, pavement thickness, material properties, and subgrade to name a few.  Essentially, there are so many variables involved in construction that it is virtually impossible to reduce it down to a simple set of rules and equations; therefore, there is a significant amount of “art” to it.  However, there are equipment and methods common to almost all pavement construction and there are accepted best practices.  This Module outlines the basics of flexible and rigid pavement construction in the following sections: