
Inverted Pavement Design - Transferring Structural Credits from the Traditional Asphalt surface to just below
Value Engineered Road

Traditional road designs that have been the accepted standard for years place a significant part of the structural credit (and consequently cost) for the components needed to build the road on the surface, i.e., the asphalt or concrete top layer that you drive on. These traditional designs also limit the consideration for the structural credit for the road base and give no credit for the permeability of the foundation or account for the effects of water re-entering the road base and it becoming dispersive. From a cost standpoint, asphalt and concrete are the most expensive components compared to the base course and soil-cement materials under them, and as such, most of the budget for the total road expense has typically been allocated to the cost of the asphalt or concrete surface in traditional designs.
Using LithTec's™ unique combination of strength, elasticity, and non-dispersive properties in your road's foundation, roads can now be value-engineered so that more of the structural credit goes to the road base. This reduces the amount of asphalt or concrete necessary in the surface for structural integrity, and because LithTec™ is carrying the structural load and it is a fraction of the price of asphalt and concrete, you get a lower overall cost while producing a better, longer-lasting road.
Further, when safety is a concern or when faced with a significant number of miles of failing asphalt or failing gravel roads on a limited budget, you can now make an affordable road by reclaiming the materials you've already paid for and adding LithTec™ into the foundation of the road. With a strong structural base, a low-cost chip seal surface can be added to the LithTec™ treated, reclaimed materials in the base, and the result is a safe, all-weather asphalt quality ride road for a fraction of the cost of asphalt.
Why is LithTec's™ Accelerated Lithification™ process better than a standard pozzolan or pozzolanic reaction in Ordinary Portland Cement, Portland Pozzolana Cement, etc.?
In the LithTec's™ Accelerated Lithification™ process, the pores in the chemically modified and bonded permanent matrix are significantly reduced compared to soil-cement, which yields an unprecedented combination of benefits of strength, ductility, and permeability.
In addition to LithTec™ besting Portland Cement in road base foundations by being non-dispersive and having higher elasticity at the strengths required for designs, LithTec™ differentiates and separates itself from cement in strength at various times to compaction. Specifically, LithTec™ treated soil retains full strength after more than 6 hours time to compaction vs. soil-cement, which loses over 10% of its strength after 2 hours, over 50% after 4 hours, and soil-cement loses over 75% of its strength after 6 hours time to compaction, compared to its strength at 1.5 hours time to compaction.
