The use of naturally available materials not conforming to traditional specifications orstandards, in the base and sub-base layers of road pavement structures, stabilised with New-age(Nano) Modified Emulsions (NME), have been tested, implemented and successfully verifiedthrough Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) in South Africa. This was made possible through thedevelopment and use of a design procedure addressing fundamental principles and based on scientific concepts, which are universally applicable. The understanding of and incorporation of thechemical interaction between the mineralogy of the materials and a NME stabilising agent (compatibility between the chemistry of the reactive agents and material mineralogy) into the design approach is key to achieving the required engineering properties. Stabilised materials evaluation isdone using tests indicative of the basic engineering properties (physics) of compressive strengths,tensile strengths and durability. This article describes the basic materials design approach developed to ensure that organofunctional nano-silane modified emulsions can successfully be used forpavement layer construction utilising naturally available materials, at a low risk. The enablement ofthe use of naturally available materials in all pavement layers can have a considerable impact on theunit cost and life-cycle costs of road transportation infrastructure.

road pavement design; design based on materials science; material mineralogy; Newage (Nano) Modified Emulsions (NME); naturally available materials; material stabilisation; basicengineering requirements; Unconfined Compressive Strengths (UCS); Indirect Tensile Strengths(ITS); Retained Compressive Strengths (RCT) and; Retained Tensile Strengths (RTS).