Abstract
Regional airports represent around 600 of the approximately 700 registered airports in Australia and the vast majority of these regional airports are constructed with flexible pavements. Regional airport pavements are required to meet the same safety regulations as major and international airports, and this primarily affects the pavement surface type selection and design. This research compared grooved dense graded asphalt, ungrooved stone mastic asphalt, sprayed sealing and microsurfacing options as regional airport pavement surfaces. It was concluded that all four surface options are viable and valid. Each surface option was found to have advantages and disadvantages, with grooved dense graded asphalt and ungrooved stone mastic asphalt being preferred where shape correction and/or structural strengthening are required. In other applications, sprayed sealing is preferred for its lower cost. It was concluded that the expected operating aircraft, resurfacing project budget and preference of the airport manager are most likely to determine the surface option selected. Of these surface options, microsurfacing is the only one without a current national specification in Australia, and development of a specification is recommended to increase the use of microsurfacing for regional airport pavement surfacing in the future.