Recycled pavement saves money and the environment. By Amy Epps Martin and Edith Arambula Ask just about anybody to name the most recycled material in America, and you’re likely to get some predictable responses: Aluminum cans. Plastic bottles. Glass bottles. Paper. Each guess is logical. And each one is wrong. That’s because 99% of reclaimed […]
asphalt
TTI Researcher Arambula Featured in Asphalt Pavement Article
TTI Associate Research Engineer Edith Arambula’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program project on evaluating the use of recycling agents was recently featured in an article for Asphalt Pavement. Taking RAP to the Max examines the barriers that prevent the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), which is stockpiled throughout the country, and what can be […]
Comprehensive Compaction Monitoring System: TTI Develops 3-Step Process to Measure the Quality of New Asphalt Pavement
Construction defects in new asphalt layers often cause early pavement failures. Imagine a time when these are eliminated. “I think that time is here,” says Tom Scullion, manager of the Flexible Pavement Program at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). Scullion is speaking of a three-step process (detailed in this article) that uses technologies developed […]
Using New Technologies to Solve Old Problems
Pavements With close to 80,000 miles of roadways in Texas, maintaining the pavements, whether asphalt or concrete, is a demanding and costly part of city, county and state responsibilities to keep our transportation system among the best in the country. When potholes, cracks and ruts appear and begin to degrade the pavement, it’s often too […]
Removing Excess Asphalt: Initial test of ultra-high-pressure water blasting a success
Summertime in Texas means rising temperatures, long days and the emergence of maintenance forces ready to take on approximately 186,000 lane miles of roadways. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) spends over $2 billion annually to maintain the state’s roadways, and seal coats are an important part of TxDOT‘s preventative maintenance program. But what happens […]
Varying seal-coat asphalt rates across the roadway
As the winter months wind down, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) district offices throughout the state will complete planning for the hectic summer seal-coat season. Best applied when the weather is warm, seal coats are by far the most popular preventative maintenance treatment used in Texas. A recently completed research project, sponsored by TxDOT and […]
Black top served hot: TTI research helps lengthen road life
Potholes in the road cause more problems than commuters just spilling their coffee. Potholes are also a safety hazard and an expensive burden to the taxpayers footing the bill for repairs. Thermal segregation, one major cause of potholes, occurs in isolated, low-density areas when the temperature differs greatly during placement of the new overlay. Hot-mix […]