Benefits of Asphalt Shine at Polk County Open House Demonstration

On a bright and shiny morning, forty city, county and consulting engineers gathered on SE 32nd Avenue in Polk County to see a Perpetual Pavement rehabilitation in action. The Open House Demonstration was sponsored by Polk County Engineering; Des Moines Asphalt, a division of Old Castle Materials; and the Asphalt Paving Association of Iowa. The project featured the use of a 40% RAP (recycled asphalt pavement) mix design, a two-inch profile milling of the existing pavement, and tandem (two pavers going side-by-side), fast-track paving of the 2” new surface wear course.
Perpetual paving is the use of thick, full-depth asphalt pavements that prevent bottom-up cracking and virtually never wear out. The pavements are milled approximately every twenty years (the 32nd Ave surface was 23 years old) to place a new wearing course, the milled material is recycled into new asphalt, and the extremely costly total rehabilitation needed for other pavements, isn’t needed for asphalt.
 
The road was closed to traffic during the five hours it took Des Moines Asphalt to place the approximately 1510 tons. “We give the local residents plenty of notice that we will be coming on a certain date, they get their cars out in the morning, and by five o’clock that night (or noon in this case) they can access their driveway. The people love it”, said Jeff Chapman, General Manager of Des Moines Asphalt. “By using tandem or seamless paving, we eliminate the weakest spot in the asphalt construction process at the centerline joint. It’s a minor inconvenience during construction, but the benefits of longer-life pavements more than outweigh the trivial interruption to the traveling public.”

The APAI plans several more demo projects this summer featuring the public environmental and social benefits of asphalt. A special thank you to Polk County, the crews of Des Moines Asphalt, Greg Kinser, Jeff Chapman, Ted Huisman and Col. John Bellizzi for allowing the attendees to see a top-notch project being constructed.

To view more photos of this open house, click here.