The Austrian state territory, with a total area of about 84,000 km2, is served by a road network of approximately 200,000 km, including about 35,000 km of highways, expressways, and federal and provincial roads. The balance of about 165,000 km are roads at the local community level and finally rural roads (approximately 100,000 km) outside village boundaries. In the future, new roads will be built principally to finalize development plans. The maintenance of the Austrian rural road network has been the major task of road agencies over the last 10 years and will be of significant importance in the future. In view of the growing need for economical methods for rural road reconstruction, the use of mixed-in-place cement stabilization with existing pavement materials (recycling of milled material) is considered to be an economical and resource-saving approach. Practical experience was gained with the preparatory work required (inspection of the existing pavement and suitability testing) and the different stages of construction work. The resulting increase of the load-bearing capacity has been proven by measurement. Additional measurements will be carried out in the future (Benkelman beam, falling weight deflectometer). Application conditions and especially limitations were evaluated. A simple comparison of costs shows that the economic benefit of the presented method depends highly on local conditions, such as the costs of material, transportation, and materials deposit.
Economic Development and Infrastructure: The Case of Balochistan
Province