Highly Modified Asphalt Pavement Offers Multiple Benefits

Item #: 20220065

CONTACTS

Implementing Organization: Region Two
Implementation Lead: Howard Anderson
Development Team: Lonnie Marchant, Center Materials Asphalt Section
Innovation Team Coordinator: Winston Inoway

STATUS

Implementation Date: September 21, 2022
Adoption Status: Implemented (further adoption advisable)
Adoptability Note: This has potential for wider applications. Where might this type of pavement be most useful?

APPLIES TO

Topic: Construction Practices
Organization(s): Asset Management, Central Construction, Central Materials, Central Preconstruction, Structures
Job Role(s):Construction Engineer, Materials Engineer
Tags: highway transportation, infrastructure preservation, materials, value of time, products, chemistry, industrial engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering, asset management, construction, testing samples, sampling, pavement, connected communities

PROBLEM

Constructing asphalt pavement in multiple lifts (layers) complicates construction and creates weak planes within the pavement. To obtain the compaction needed for long-term durability, traditional mixes must be constructed in lifts. For construction phasing and traffic maintenance, having the ability to place a thick, 6–8" lift of durable asphalt in one lift while obtaining full-depth compaction would have many applications.

CHANGE

Using a highly modified asphalt binder in a mix designed for low air voids, a mix design was created that can do two things at once: compact in thick lifts and provide long-term durability and rut resistance.

RESULT

A pilot project at the Wendover Port of Entry was successful. The mix with high binder content placed in a thick lift proved to be stable in the harshest of conditions. This mix has the potential to be used in situations where the cure time for a higher early strength concrete pavement can be reduced by a week, thus opening critical infrastructure to traffic within a couple of days on a durable asphalt pavement.

The implications of this mix for other applications is being investigated, and has been placed as an overlay on the intersection of I-15 and future West Davis Corridor. There are plans to use this asphalt mix design and highly modified binder to replace concrete on interstate ramps so they can be reopened quickly as they are rehabilitated. There are also plans to use this in thin lift overlay applications to ensure compaction and reduce coring of the pavements to verify that compaction.