The 13th Annual Arizona Pavements/Materials Conference took place on Arizona State University’s Campus Tuesday morning to demonstrate six different types of sustainable pavement.
Demonstrations took place on Orange Street and McAllister Avenue where folks from ASU, the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration showcased the sustainable pavement types.
“What we have here are six to eight different ways of maintaining a roadway,” said Tom Buick, a retired consultant. “The fantastic part about this is that ASU had some streets that they could use some help on, and these guys from the industry came out voluntarily with their equipment and are putting down, as we speak, some really fine repairs.”
The demonstrations are the result of a collaboration between the Arizona Association of General Contractors, Arizona Pavements/Materials Conference and ASU Advanced Pavement Research Group. Demonstrations included, in order: Wide Crack, Mastic Patching, High Float Chip Seal, PMA Chip Seal, S-92 Chip Seal, PMAR Chip Seal, Nova Chip and a wrap up.
The major benefit of the pavements shown at the demonstration is durability, Buick said.
“For one, they’re very careful about the emissions associated with the process and the products,” Buick said. “The other thing is that it’s not so expensive and yet it lasts a long time.”
ASU civil engineering Professor Kamil Kaloush said that he likes to think of the pavements as “cost-effective” as opposed to less expensive. However, these pavements aren’t easily implemented on every street.
Good roads and infrastructure are crucial for developments and growing the economy. Currently, Arizona is looking at an infrastructure problem. According to the State of Arizona Office of Auditor General, ADOT’s long-term plan for the state’s roads need $88.9 billion between 2010 and 2035, but the state road agency is expected to = receive $26.2 billion during that time frame, which is a $62.7 billion shortfall.
“Usually the limiting factor is the budget,” Buick said. “The truth is that there’s an awful lot in our communities that’s in need of repair and is not yet being touched simply because of the limiting budgets.”
After experiencing poor weather at last year’s conference, speaker Jeff Smith with Cactus Asphalt said that there are ambient and surface requirements they must consider.
“Those environmental conditions weren’t very much fun to work in,” Smith said. “And certainly the end result of some of the applications weren’t as good as we had hoped.”
Deciding which type of pavement to use depends on the situation, according to Smith.
“When you look at choosing your materials, there’s a lot of factors to consider,” Smith said. “We definitely want to talk about and look at best practice every time. So no matter what material you choose you want to make sure that the construction procedures are correct and that the specifications are followed.”
The lifetime of these pavements ranges anywhere from five to 12 years, depending on what type of pavement is used, how much traffic occurs on the road and other conditions, according to Smith.
Kaloush said that pavement demonstrations haven’t always been included in the annual conference.
“In the last couple years, we started adding this pavement demonstration component to it,” Kaloush said. “We just felt that to have these real life applications for local agencies and students and faculty to see the applications will be an important part of the program.”
Since Kaloush specializes in teaching about pavements, he brought a class of students to the demonstrations.
“We talk about these activities in class, so for the students to come over and take a look at that, what a wonderful education for them to do this,” Kaloush said.
Aside from the demonstrations being an educational tool, Kaloush believes anyone can benefit from attending.
“It’s really a great networking event, so we like to have this on campus just because of the student body and the activity that goes on,” Kaloush said.
