Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Bacteria and asphalt stripping. Final report, December 1983-August 1987

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6593550
Major types of bituminous pavement distress were rutting, cracking (longitudinal, transverse, and alligator) and stripping. The rubble and loosely bound material contained bacteria. The deterioration lessened upward from the pavement-soil interface. The soil appears to be the prime source of the bacteria. Most of the bacterial cells were sausage shaped with polar flagellation. They appeared to belong to the genus Pseudomonas, which is a known user of asphaltic hydrocarbons. Cocci-type bacteria and a virus were also noted. Increasing the density of some asphaltic concrete and strengthening the bond between aggregate and asphalt are considered as the preferred alternatives to using chemical biocides. Anything to reduce pavement cracking would help. Adding lime to asphalt mixes may be one effective means of improving aggregate-asphalt bond and controlling biodeterioration. Lime stabilization of soils under asphalt pavements may provide an added protection against bacterial attack by rendering the soil more hostile to bacterial habitat. Full-depth hot-mix recycling would be more effective than partial-depth recycling in retarding bacterial decay at cracks.
Research Organization:
Kansas Dept. of Transportation, Topeka (USA). Bureau of Materials and Research
OSTI ID:
6593550
Report Number(s):
PB-89-113492/XAB
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Rheological properties of asphalts with particulate additives
Journal Article · Mon Dec 30 23:00:00 EST 1996 · Preprints of Papers, American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry · OSTI ID:430352

Chemical modification of asphalts
Conference · Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · American Chemical Society, Division of Petroleum Chemistry, Preprints; (United States) · OSTI ID:7228795

How good are linear viscoelastic properties of asphalt binder to predict rutting and fatigue cracking
Journal Article · Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1999 · Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance · OSTI ID:6381340