Combined Use of GPR and Other NDTs for Road Pavement Assessment: An Overview

Roads are the main transportation system in any country and, therefore, must be maintained in good physical condition to provide a safe and seamless flow to transport people and goods. However, road pavements are subjected to various defects because of construction errors, aging, environmental conditions, changing traffic load, and poor maintenance. Regular inspections are therefore recommended to ensure serviceability and minimize maintenance costs. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a non-destructive testing (NDT) technique widely used to inspect the subsurface condition of road pavements. Furthermore, the integral use of NDTs has received more attention in recent years since it provides a more comprehensive and reliable assessment of the road network. Accordingly, GPR has been integrated with complementary NDTs to extend its capabilities and to detect potential pavement surface and subsurface distresses and features. In this paper, the non-destructive methods commonly combined with GPR to monitor both flexible and rigid pavements are briefly described. In addition, published work combining GPR with other NDT methods is reviewed, emphasizing the main findings and limitations of the most practical combination methods. Further, challenges, trends, and future perspectives of the reviewed combination works are highlighted, including the use of intelligent data analysis.

Automated summary

Roads are crucial for transportation and require regular inspections and maintenance. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a widely used non-destructive testing method to assess the condition of road pavements. Recent studies have combined GPR with other non-destructive testing methods to enhance its capabilities and detect potential pavement issues. Intelligent data analysis has the potential to improve the application of non-destructive testing techniques in the future.