Pavement Engineering Services

During the last 15 years Ian has worked extensively with State Road Agencies in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Australian Department of Defence, Port authorities, Aurizon, Queensland Rail, and the Brisbane Airports Company. He is involved with the Australian Asphalt Paving Association (AfPA), the Australian Society for Concrete Pavement (ASCP), and the University of Queensland, where he is Adjunct Professor (from January 2020). He has authored or co-authored around 50 technical papers as well as a chapter in a highway engineering handbook.

The FSG pavement design engineering services complement FSG’s expertise in geotechnical investigation and designs, and is enhanced by FSG’s understanding of testing, subgrade, and pavement materials.

In addition to having an exhaustive understanding of local and international pavement design standards, we have considerable experience in modelling long-term performance of pavements under different loading and maintenance situations. This allows us to consider whole-of-life consequences and optimise pavement designs accordingly.

We are also able to assess and consider sustainability aspects, such emissions and the carbon footprints of each pavement design and maintenance option.

FSG provides pavement design and associated services including:

Pavement Design for Local, Main & Arterial Roads

FSG are very familiar with Australian (Austroads and the various State Road Authorities) pavement assessment, design guidelines, supplements, and technical specifications, in addition to a good understanding of international procedures. This includes mechanistic- empirical procedures. FSG is currently prequalified at level GE3 for geotechnical engineering with Queensland Transport and Main roads and holds VicRoads ND1 and ND2 prequalification.

Pavement Design for Residential Streets, Private Roads, and Car Parks

FSG has had extensive experience with the site assessment and design of light duty pavements for residential streets, private roads and carparks.  We focus on addressing stakeholder needs, whole-of-life analyses, optimised designs, sustainability, and best-for-project designs.

Condition Assessment and Pavement Evaluation

An appropriate visual condition pavement assessment, on network or detailed level, provides invaluable information about the failure modes and basis for further testing. We have staff with visual condition experience at different levels of detail for a range of pavement types.

Being part of a leading geotechnical company provides supporting expertise in pavement strength and material testing, both destructive and non-destructive.

We have particular expertise in the in-situ testing (plate load, falling weight deflectometer, light falling weight deflectometer, dynamic cone penetrometer) of existing pavements and earthworks, and the analysis of the results, including back-calculation of falling weight deflectometer (FWD) results. The latter can be converted into the determining of remaining lives and recommendation of rehabilitation or maintenance alternatives.

Subgrade Assessment and Improvement

Not only does FSG have dedicated pavement design specialists, we also pride ourselves on our geotechnical engineering knowledge in regard to fine grained soils and their engineering behaviour as subgrades for pavements. Our engineers have had vast experience in the nature and behaviour of pavement subgrades not just from a strength (CBR) perspective. We also have successfully worked on projects where relatively low-cost improvements to pavement subgrades have resulted in large reduction in pavement thickness or the quality of the pavement materials required leading to large savings for the client.

Pavement Materials Evaluation

We realise the importance of optimised designs, material specification and selection, and constructability. We are familiar with exploring the use of locally available (sometime marginal) materials, utilisation of waste products, and designs constituted to reduce carbon emissions.

Construction Support and Temporary Pavements

In addition to the geotechnical services, we can provide support related to temporary pavement designs, review of pavement designs (including asphalt, sprayed seal and unsealed compositions), comments on alternative or enhanced designs, and the use of locally available materials.

Pavement Assessment and Rehabilitation Advice

Existing pavements often need to be assessed and sometimes strengthened where full pavement reconstruction is not appropriate or possible. FSG are experienced in undertaking pavement rehabilitation designs including the modelling of long-term performance of pavements under different loading and maintenance situations.

Review and Advice on Heavily Loaded Port and Aircraft Pavements

FSG has experience with the types of pavements used in heavily loaded applications like Ports and Aircraft facilities. These types of pavements are often fundamentally different to highway pavements in the nature of the materials used, and the pavement compositions adopted. We can provide expert consultation services in these areas and if required undertake forensic assessment of pavement distress or performance issues.