Highly Modified Asphalt Performance

Roads and Bridges, February, 2013

Recent research by the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) indicates the use of highly polymer-modified asphalt binder (HiMA) in mix design can reduce pavement thickness requirements while matching or exceeding the cracking and rutting resistance of significantly thicker non-HiMA mixes.

Findings from the 2009-11 research cycle at NCAT’s Pavement Test Track in Opelika, Ala., show a sponsored pavement section incorporating HiMA binder experienced less than one-third the wheel-path rut depth of the track’s control section, which is 20% thicker. Both mixes employed the same Superpave mix design methodology. In addition, a failed adjoining pavement test section for a different sponsor that was repaired using HiMA technology showed similar results.

A third pavement test section incorporating HiMA binder was constructed at the track for NCAT’s 2012-14 research cycle and is currently undergoing heavy truck traffic. A fourth section was installed on a local county road as part of a comprehensive pavement-preservation experiment.

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