Pavement Engineering

 

Opus professionals are responsible for the design, construction and ongoing management of new and existing pavements in all the countries in which we operate.

Pavements for heavy duty applications (ports, industrial facilities and airports), for heavily trafficked highways, for sealed and unsealed urban and rural roads of all types, and for roads, car parks and facilities servicing both public and private land feature regularly in our project work. We employ state of the art pavement design and modelling techniques, when these are appropriate, in our work.  

Opus staff are routinely involved in the project solutions they prepare for their clients who regularly benefit from the findings of our ongoing research work into pavement design and materials. Our people continue to be acknowledged as industry leaders in many aspects of pavement engineering, including the cost effective use of “local” pavement materials, the design and construction of pavements on low strength ground, and the ongoing development of innovative pavement surfacing options employing both asphalt and concrete bound layers.

Our pavement design and construction solutions can be tailored to meet the often varying demands of the local environment, structural loading and cost effectiveness. Opus pavement designers are encouraged to participate in the construction of “their” pavements during their professional career. We believe that effective pavement design solutions also deliver practical construction solutions.

Show all Pavement Engineering projects...

Concrete Pavements in High Stress Environments, New Zealand

Whilst the use of concrete pavements in high traffic areas is not new, Opus has recent experience designing and assisting a local contractor to construct a concrete pavement within a high stress urban roundabout site.

                                                                                   

Hexham Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation, New South Wales, Australia

The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) of New South Wales engaged Opus to provide solution options for a section of concrete pavement that is showing visible signs of distress at Hexham, approximately 14km north-east of  Newcastle city centre. The pavement is heavily trafficked and so only night time work is feasible. This constraint restricts major scale slab replacement works as the pavement needs to be opened to traffic early morning. The thickness of the replaced pavement slabs is also constrained because of the necessity of matching thickness with the adjoining pavement slabs. With these constraints, the objective of the project was to investigate and research the use of innovative design practices and materials such as fibre reinforced concrete pavements to achieve a longer life from the replaced pavement slabs.