Use Of Virgin Rocks Debris To Construct Road Pavement Super Compacted Layers

Sardinia has a major mining history that holds considerable importance in Italian mining economy. Sardinian mining companies that up to 2005 resulted active and registered in the trade register of the Chamber of Commerce are 241, of which 95.9% are in the branch of the extraction of non-metallic minerals, including construction material sand stones for ornamental use. Industrial minerals extracted in Sardinia represent 50% of the Italian production. In this context the use of natural aggregates such as basalt, trachyte and andesite has been investigated in order to sustain and make the most of local natural available resources in the field of road construction. This research has focused the attention on the evaluation of using these available granular materials for the construction of super compacted base layers according to the South-African technique of the Inverted Pavement. Inverted Pavement is a widely used method of road construction that allows a considerable saving in terms of thickness of Hot Mix Asphalt layers, as well as overall cost of the infrastructure. In this paper chemical and physical-mechanical properties of the materials in question were analyzed and the results were compared with those of the South African rocks. The results of the study made it possible to identify the design criteria to enhance the commitment of these natural resources through the maximization of their mechanical performance