GPR investigations on degraded road pavements built on embankments

A high frequency GPR survey was carried out on degraded flexible road pavements built on embankments. The survey was expected to find correlations between types of damage, height of embankments, traffic load and GPR scan results. Five types of damages observed in twenty sites selected in L’Aquila (central Italy), were investigated: transversal and longitudinal cracks, only longitudinal cracks, only transversal cracks, ramified cracks and failures. To define the impact of embankment height and traffic load on road pavement degradation, the survey focused on high and low embankments, as well as on heavy and low traffic road pavements. Road integrity was evaluated by a quantitatively analysis (GPR signal attenuation vs. depth), using a 1600 MHz handheld shielded monostatic bow tie antenna. It investigates media, with a resolution of about 1 cm, till a depth of 1.5 m which is also the maximum depth of influence of the induced traffic stress.