Statewide Implementation of PAVE-IR in the Texas Department of Transportation (5-4577-05-1)

This project conducted work to complement implementation of Pave-IR into the Texas Department of Transportation's hot-mix-asphalt quality control/quality assurance specification. Pave-IR provides real-time thermal profiling of paving operations to detect thermal segregation. To facilitate this implementation, a webinar was first conducted to introduce industry and agency personnel to the background of thermal profiling and how thermal segregation relates to mixture properties and performance. More than 80 attendees comprising both contractor and agency personnel attended the webinar. The webinar materials are available separate of this report as Product 5-4577-05-P1. Next, Pave-IR thermal profiling was demonstrated on eight construction projects. This report presents the results from these demonstrations, which were made of varying mixture types around the state. The thermal profiles collected ranged from projects with little thermal segregation to projects with frequent severe thermal segregation. In all cases, the demonstrations revealed contractor and agency staff eager to learn more about the technology and how the results can be used to place higher quality asphalt mixtures.