Design and construction of chip seals for high traffic volume

This paper describes methods of effectively constructing chip seals on high traffic volume pavements (greater than 7500 vehicles per day per lane on four lanes, or approximately 30,000 ADT) and avoiding the problems indicated above. Much of the research described in this paper culminated in the construction and performance evaluation of four experimental pavements designed to demonstrate effectiveness of chip seal applications on high traffic volume asphalt concrete pavements. Over twenty different experimental test sections were constructed as part of this study. Performance of one of the pavements over the past seven years suggests that initial aggregate embedment must be higher than for chip seals carrying conventional traffic-to resist aggregate loss within the first 24 hours of trafficking. Further, to avoid flushing due to the higher initial aggregate embedment, stiffening of the emulsion residues through modification appears necessary.