What Are Pavement Investigations?
The UK’s vast road network is in constant need of maintenance, refurbishment, upgrading, and replacement. Identifying the need for and extent of such work requires a thorough understanding of road construction and its current condition.
Working closely with major contractors, stakeholders, consultants, and government agencies, CTS provides the technical staff and specialist equipment required day or night, to carry out often complex and demanding pavement investigations.
Pavement Investigation Services
With our team of highly experienced technicians, CTS offers an extensive range of pavement investigation services, allowing us to investigate the construction and condition of the country’s roads and their furniture. We work on flexible, rigid, and composite carriageways allowing multiple surveys to be conducted.
Our early client engagement allows us to tailor specialist sample, testing, and reporting support to meet customer requirements. CTS site pavement investigation findings and laboratory test results are then used to assist with individual scheme pavement condition assessment and future maintenance strategies.
Our extensive pavement investigation services include:
- Pavement coring and logging
- Falling Weight Deflectometer* (FWD) survey
- Highways visual condition survey
- Topographical surveys
- Carriageway, footway and verge trial pit excavation, logging and reinstatement
- California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) testing
- Bridge joint pencil core sampling & logging
- Waste acceptance criteria (WAC) analysis
- Bridge waterproofing investigations
- New Roads and Streetworks Act (NRSWA) operatives and supervisors
- Unbound Material Sampling (UMS)
- Tar bound ‘coal tar’ sampling and analysis including in-house laboratory testing and interpretation
Experience and Standards
Operating UK-wide, our managers and technicians are trained under the New Roads and Street Works Act (NRSWA) and are highly experienced in ensuring disruption to roads whilst pavement investigations are carried out are kept to a minimum with safe and efficient traffic management procedures in place.
The team also provides our clients with a nationwide range of, Infrastructure and bridge investigations and Utility reinstatement compliance sampling. In addition, our in-house laboratories undertake a comprehensive range of pavement materials testing, environmental analysis, and geotechnical and chemical analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is pavement testing?
Pavement testing is a broad subject that can cover a wide range of testing. Pavement testing can range from complex investigations utilising a host of different techniques, such as Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD), Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), core sample extraction, and Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) testing, to routine compliance testing during the construction phase.
What is a pavement core?
A pavement core is a sample taken through the pavement using a rotary coring machine. The core is cut with a diamond-tipped coring barrel, which is most commonly cooled by water. Core samples allow the layers forming the pavement to be observed and provide samples suitable for a range of further testing.
What are the different pavement tests?
The testing that can be carried out on pavements is numerous, depending on what is to be determined. These range from compliance tests when the asphalt is laid to destructive and non-destructive methods used in pavement assessment during the service life.
What are the tests for asphalt?
The tests that can be carried out on asphalt vary depending on what is to be determined, ranging from compliance tests when the asphalt is laid to destructive and non-destructive methods used in pavement assessment during the service life.
Why Choose CTS for Pavement Investigations?
With a particular focus on client engagement, we can tailor our pavement investigation service, designing bespoke approaches for the most demanding environments.
To find out more about our pavement investigation services, please get in touch with a member of the CTS team today, and we’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our services and how we can help you.
*Falling Weight Deflectometers (FWD) are a rapid, non-destructive method of assessing the structural integrity of roads, runways and pavements. Data from the FWD can be used to determine the stiffness of the road or pavement structure, the degree of load transfer between adjacent sections and even the presence of voids beneath the surface.