Understanding Pavement Failures: Building Roads That Last

Pavement failures are more than just potholes and cracks, they represent costly setbacks, safety risks and disruptions for communities. In Tensar’s latest webinar, Understanding Pavement Failures, we explored why pavements don’t always live up to their design life and what we can do about it.
 

Why Pavements Fail Early

While it’s easy to blame asphalt when roads deteriorate, the real causes often run deeper beneath the surface. Some of the key factors include:

• Design assumptions – Standardized sections that overlook unique site conditions can lead to over- or under-designed roads.
• Drainage – Water is pavement’s worst enemy. Poor drainage accelerates deterioration and weakens structural layers.
• Material variability – Aggregate and subgrade quality can vary significantly, impacting performance.
• Traffic loading – Heavy trucks, especially when fully loaded, cause exponentially more damage than cars.
• Construction sequencing – Leaving off the top asphalt layer during development can drastically reduce traffic capacity.
• Cracking and reflective cracks – Surface cracks not only degrade ride quality but also allow water infiltration, compounding structural problems.

Bottom Up Failures Versus Top Down Solutions

Bottom-up failures, where subgrade and base layers give way, are the most difficult and expensive to fix. Instead, we must “get the structure right so the asphalt can do the work.” That means stabilizing base layers with geogrids, improving drainage and addressing variability with smarter designs. Pavements wear out at the surface, where maintenance (such as mill and overlay) is easier and less expensive to perform. 

As the Beneath the Build video highlights, “it’s not just about adding more asphalt or concrete.” If design practices don’t account for real-world conditions—traffic loads, drainage, soil variability—pavements will crack, rut, and fail, no matter how much material you put on top

Why It Matters

For contractors, engineers and DOTs, this insight translates directly into more durable roads, fewer callbacks and lower lifecycle costs. Whether you’re designing municipal streets or industrial pavements, leveraging innovative materials and approaches can shift performance outcomes dramatically.

Want to dive deeper? The full webinar, Understanding Pavement Failures, is available on-demand. Watch the webinar here.