PAVEMENT RESEARCH AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES IN BRAZIL

Brazil today has a highway grid of some 1.65 million km, of which only 148,120 km are paved, with the remaining 1.5 million km yet to be done. The highway grid management model recently adopted resorts to road privatizations. Although on one hand, private sector investment may revamp a few highways in southern Brazil, on the other, there is a need to connect poor communities to what can be called the organized society, thus offering them a higher quality of life. Therefore, we must seek technologies that allow the building of quality infrastructure at a cost compatible with the U.S.$1,000/annum per capita income prevailing in the country, thus using the shortage of funds as a technological springboard from which engineering can start to fulfill its social role. Against this background, this paper aims to present the current status of the technology used, the pressing needs for know-how, and the leading research work being conducted by universities and other centers of study.