CHAPTER 4 : INFRASTRUCTURAL

FAILURES
AIRPORT-CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY :

Sustainable Runway Pavement Rehabilitation:

A case study of an Australian airport
 CASE DESCRIPTION
• WCA located approximately 15 km south of the town of Proserpine in the Whitsunday Coast region.The
airport is the primary airport for the Airlie Beach area, which is major Queensland tourist destination the
main gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. Airport supports both the sugar
cane and tourism industry and forms part of the region's critical infrastructure.Capable of
accommodating 24-h flight operations with one main runway (2075m by 45 m), a parking apron capable
of accommodating up to four commercial aircraft simultaneously and a connecting taxiway. Other
infrastructure includes a general aviation area and a passenger terminal buildingIn 2012 the runway at
WCA was in poor condition, exhibitingsignificant roughness and cracking as a result of continuous
overloading and inundation during flood.A significant repair was affected and a major pavement
rehabilitation was planned for 2017. That major rehabilitation is now complete.constructed using the
design described below as the full re-use and recycling option.the intent was to develop optionally
efficient and cost-effective designs that also supported WCA's desire for sustainable solutions whenever
the risk was demonstrated to be manageably low
 THEORY & CONCEPT
• This paper presents the upgrading of the WCA pavement rehabilitation project as a
- case study in sustainability. Three equivalent pavement designs, representing a
traditional (all new) approach, a conservative re-use approach and an innovative
full-recycling approach are developed and compared based on financial cost,
social cost and environmental cost. The WCA project is an example of how
environmentally sustainable solutions can be incorporated into airport pavement
rehabilitation and development works, without introducing significant technical
risk, for substantial financial and environmental benefit.
MODES/TYPES OF FAILURE
• -An influx of defective materials used in runway pavement projects
• Buckled runways littered with debris

Flawed Concrete
 CAUSES OF FAILURE
In this case, failure is referred to as the inability to achieve the performance standards
lifespan for a pavement structure.Failure also causes from having an inadequate
lifespan for a pavement structure.These causes due to improper design, poor
construction techniques, a lack of maintenance, and the use of poor-quality
materials.In this study, it considers three different of costs which are social (new
materials consumed and waste material sent to landfill), financial (material supply and
construction), and environmental (greenhouse gas emissions).The researchers can
identify which one has the lowest overall cost by comparing these costs across
alternative designs by identify which one will be most effective in accomplishing our
aims while having the least detrimental impact on society, economics, and the
environment.
 PROCESS OF FAILURE

The study article discusses pavement upgrade failure. It examines three designs for
upgrading a regional Australian airport's runway: traditional granular reconstruction with a
new asphalt surface; conservative re-use by bitumen stabilization of the granular base
course; and full re-use and recycling, which includes incorporating existing asphalt into the
bitumen stabilized base course and recycled asphalt in its surface layer. Increase strength
and moisture resistance while considering social, financial, and environmental implications
(greenhouse gas emissions). To compare design possibilities objectively, social, economic,
and environmental impacts were considered. All techniques had lower total triple bottom
line costs than the typical one, but full reuse and recycle produced significant savings
compared to more conservative choices such as only reusing materials without further
recycling activities.
 EFFECTS OF FAILURE
In this research paper, the cost of upgrading the pavement is the result of
failure. The triple bottom line approach was used to compare different
design options in a fair way and figure out how much each one would
cost. These costs included social costs (such as the amount of new
materials used and the amount of waste sent to a landfill), financial costs
(such as the cost of materials and construction), and environmental costs
(such as greenhouse gas emissions). If one or more designs don't work, the
overall cost of the project will go up because more resources will be
needed to fix things or make replacement parts.
DESIGN & ANALYSIS
• A regional Australian airport's runway is specifically
- examined using three different designs: traditional granular
reconstruction with a new asphalt surface; conservative re-
use by bitumen stabilisation of the granular base course; and
full re-use and recycling approach, which includes
incorporating both recycled and pre-existing asphalt into the
bitumen stabilised base course and its surface layer.
DESIGN GUIDELINES & STANDARD
The design standard for the regional Australian airport pavement
upgrade was to increase runway strength and improve moisture
resistance of the granular base course. Three designs were
considered, including a traditional granular reconstruction with
a new asphalt surface, a conservative re-use by bitumen
stabilisation of the granular base course and a similar full re-use
and recycling approach which incorporated existing asphalt into
the bitumen stabilised base course as well as recycled asphalt in
its surface laye
 INVESTIGATION APPROACH ON
MITIGATION & REMEDIAL WORK
TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

• Analysis include financial, environmental and social cost estimation.

• The cost to society is negligible when comparing equal infrastructure update design
options because all of them deliver a similar social result, in this case, a suitably
renovated runway at the current airport location
• So, social impact of the various options was estimated of sum of the quantity of new
materials and quantity waste materials sent to landfill
• This were combined of financial and environmental cost in terms of greenhouse gas
emissions associated with the materials and transportation to site.
• This mitigation was determined by normalising each cost factor such that its
maximum cost was 100 and that the costs of the other design scenarios ranged
from 1 to 100 in relation to the design scenario with the highest cost.

It is obvious that the full re-use and recycling design has the lowest combined
cost and that the traditional design has the greatest combined cost.

The rescaled data show the relative triple bottom line cost in relation to the
conventional method, with conservative reuse costing just 25% of the
conventional design and full reuse and recycling costing only 14% of the
conventional design.
 INSTRUMENTATION & CONTROLLING
FOR MAINTENANCE & PERFORMANCE
Refers to the process of measuring, recording data, monitoring progress and
ensuring that pavement upgrades are meeting their desired objectives. In order to
compare the design options objectively instrumentation such as triple bottom line
analysis - taking into account their respective social, financial & environmental
costs were used along with other methods like regular inspections during
construction or post completion tests on materials properties, so that any issues can
be identified early enough before they become major problems later down the track.
LESSON LEARNED
The lesson learned from this research paper is that re-use and recycling of existing
pavement materials can provide significant benefits in terms of social, financial
and environmental costs. The triple bottom line approach used to compare different
design options objectively showed that the full re-use and recycle option had a
combined cost which was just 14% of the traditional design's cost. It is
recommended that other airports consider using similar approaches when
upgrading their pavements as it could lead to substantial savings while also
reducing negative impacts on society, finances, and environment.