RESEARCH PAYS OFF: U.S. AND EUROPEAN ASPHALT TECHNOLOGIES: A PERFECT MARRIAGE

The Hale Boggs Bridge over the Mississippi River at Luling, Louisiana, is a cable-stayed bridge with a steel deck. It is part of an important Interstate loop that carries a large traffic volume around the New Orleans metropolitan area. The bridge has four lanes--two in each direction. The design of the wearing surface for the steel deck stipulated an epoxy asphalt layer less than 100 mm thick because of that material's lower dead load weight, impermeability, and resistance to permanent deformation and fatigue. In early 1983 the wearing surface was constructed, and later that year the bridge was opened to local traffic. The area of the asphalt-covered deck was 12,240 sq m. Before construction had been completed, blisters formed on the epoxy asphalt wearing surface due to entrapment of water vapor from moisture in the mix during construction. Breakdown of the epoxy system continued after opening to traffic, and resulted in distress of the wearing surface in the form of shoving and rutting. This article describes how a solution was achieved by the merging of two technologies: use of the Superpave (trademark) method to specify a performance graded (PG) asphalt binder and incorporation of the selected binder in a European stone mastic asphalt (SMA). The SMA mix designed using the Superpave (trademark) PG asphalt binder has satisfactorily carried the high traffic volume on the bridge without requiring any maintenance for 2 years. Use of the SMA mix also resulted in a significant savings on initial costs as compared with the epoxy asphalt mix.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/trnews/rpo/rpo.trn193.pdf
• 
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/07386826
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Paul, H R
  • Mohammad, L N
• Publication Date: 1997-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 24-25
• Serial:
  • TR News
  • Issue Number: 193
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0738-6826
  • Serial URL: https://doi.org/10.17226/895

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Binders; Blistering; Bridge decks; Cost effectiveness; Mastic asphalt; Pavement wearing course; Performance; Polymer asphalt; Rutting; Stone; Stone matrix asphalt; Superpave
• Subject Areas: Geotechnology; Highways; Materials; I31: Bituminous Binders and Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00744782
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jan 16 1998 12:00AM