Arkansas to get A-R project

The East Arkansas Planning & Development District reports a one mile test section of Asphalt-Rubber pavement is "on track" near Forest City in St. Francis County. Charlie Woods, environmental planning consultant with the district has been working with County Judge, Carl Frisco to move the project forward.

Construction is planned this fall with RPA member FNF Construction blending the Asphalt-Rubber binder for a local contractor. The project comes after a series of workshops conducted by RPA.

The latest workshop was held in December 2000 and had nearly 100 attendees from the counties and cities throughout the state.

Workshop speakers included RPA Deputy Director Douglas Carlson, Technical Advisor Jack Van Kirk of Basic Resources, RPA 2nd Vice President Cliff Ashcroft of FNF Construction, and Gary Hildebrand of Caltrans Maintenance. Dr. Kevin Hall, University of Arkansas, has participated in the "technology transfer" effort and the project planning. Bond Engineering of West Memphis, Arkansas has also been working on the project.

The project will be monitored by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and the University of Arkansas.

The Arkansas Department of Environmenatal Quality is also participating in the project through the use of waste tire funding to offset some of the project costs.

Nebraska DOT plans A-R project

Robert Rea, P.E., Nebraska DOT Pavement Design Engineer, reports an Asphalt-Rubber overlay will be placed in Lincoln in late August or early September.
The project is on Highway 2 and will consist of a two-inch gap graded mix placed on a two and a half mile section of the four lane pavement.

FNF Construction will blend the material for the local contractor using crumb rubber produced by Entire Recycling of Nebraska City, NE.

RPA will be hosting a demonstration "tour" for Nebraska DOT personnel, local contractors and the media during the project.

SKID RESISTANCE - Which pavement would you rather drive on in a storm? This photo depicts a very wet, slick looking dense graded AC pavement joining up to the Asphalt-Rubber gap graded mix with an A-R open graded friction course placed in Dickson County, Tennessee in 1998. Photo courtesy of Greg Duncan, Tennessee Department of Transportation.

"Engineers now recognize that the type and surface texture of the road surface, including proper materials selection and design of the mix, can reduce road noise. It makes more sense to try and reduce noise at the source rather than containing it through sound barriers......

Research has shown that Open Graded Friction Courses (OGFC's) Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA), also known as gap-graded Superpave, and dense graded asphalt all have good noise deading characteristics.

Asphalt mixes containing crumb rubber also appear to cut road noise, the best results coming from open graded mixes"