Abstract
Airport pavements are large and expensive structures that are usually rigid (cement concretebase) or flexible (asphalt concrete surface and crushed rock base) in nature. Because airportpavements are expensive, and because the operational interruption to investigate failures andrepair defects is even more expensive, disputes and forensic investigations are common.However, the continuous operation of major airports often prevents pavements being closed forinspection and testing, and this significantly complicates the investigation of failures. Based onexperiences over many years, the challenges associated with investigating rigid and flexibleairport pavements are explored in this paper. The tendency for asphalt concrete, cement concrete,and crushed rock to change with construction, climate, age, and aircraft trafficking also makesthe recovery of representative material specimens from failed pavements an issue. Finally, whenmaterials are recovered for structural analysis of failed airport pavements, the difficulty inobtaining realistic aircraft traffic loading data, and the absence of a reliable pavement lifeprediction tool, makes the analysis of failed pavement structures difficult. Some of thesechallenges are expected to remain issues in the future.