Evaluating the impacts of reducing the number of hot mix asphalt plant testing acceptance criteria on mix variability.

Details

• Creators:
  Jackson, Eric ; Hansen, Gilbert
• Corporate Creators:
  Connecticut Advanced Pavement Laboratory
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Hot mix asphalt
  • Mix design
  • Acceptance tests
  • Quality assurance
  • Quality control
  • Specifications
• Publication/ Report Number:
  CT-2263-F-11-9
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Connecticut
• Corporate Publisher:
  Connecticut. Dept. of Transportation
• Abstract:
  The acceptance testing of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) conducted at the HMA production facility is an ; important portion of the overall acceptance process used by the Connecticut Department of ; Transportation (ConnDOT) for paving projects. In 2004, ConnDOT made the decision to implement a ; Quality Assurance (QA) approach to improve the quality of the construction of transportation ; facilities in the state. Until the 2009 paving season, ConnDOT had over 26 different Quality ; Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) criteria that HMA producers must meet (within limits) or face ; penalties, rejection of material or plant shutdown. In 2009, ConnDOT reduced the number of quality ; assurance metrics from 26 to 8 for the 2009 construction season. These eight metrics are: Va ; (Voids); VMA (Voids Mineral Agg); Gmm (Max Theoretical Gravity); Pb (Binder); and, four gradation ; control points (each mix has four control points that define the mix). The objective of this study was ; to statistically analyze HMA quality assurance data collected by ConnDOT from the 2007, 2008, 2009 ; and 2010 construction seasons to determine what impact the change in specifications had on the ; variability and overall quality of the mixes being produced. The results of this study indicate there ; is no overall statistically significant decrease in variability due to the 2009 specification changes. ; However, there is also no significant increase in variability due to the reduced testing. According to ; ConnDOT, these changes in specifications have eliminated costly plant shutdowns, a monetary ; savings to producers that will hopefully be passed down to ConnDOT in reduced pavement costs. ; Furthermore, the elimination of plant shutdowns will save ConnDOT and the traveling public costly ; project delays due to material not passing stringent quality assurance metrics, while not impacting ; the quality of pavement being placed.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  SPR 2263
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/27440/dot_27440_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.64 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6dd3b4ac5cf6bb0868584e269857b516bb2727ae70d9a09a765e815c0ba6dd6559c5354b01b1e686421a8906be863d115b8504c6f43cae5fa6af60d771c8ef70