Third Warm-Mix Asphalt (WMA) Demonstration is Biggest Success Yet!

The third WMA demonstration project held yesterday in Des Moines and on highway 69 in Warren Co. was hugely successful with over 50 IDOT personnel, County Engineers, Consulting Engineers, Asphalt Suppliers and Contractors attending the event. This was the third and final WMA demonstration event held across the state in joint partnership between the IDOT, APAI and APAI contractors.

The event began with a welcoming speech by Greg Kinser, of Des Moines Asphalt (OMG) at the Holiday Inn in DM followed by presentations by Bill Rosener of the APAI, Richard Draheim of Astec and asphalt consultant John Bellizzi. The group then boarded a bus to the Des Moines Asphalt Beaver Ave plant to watch the WMA being made at the state-of-the-art facility using the Astec Double Barrel Green process in “foaming” the asphalt cement. The temperature of the WMA was approximately 50 degrees cooler than the traditional HMA being produced at the plant.

After lunch, the group traveled to see the WMA being placed on HWY 69 on the north side of Indianola. Stan Lillard, project foreman for DMA, told me that density readings on the nuclear gauge rose from 95 to 97 after switching from the HMA to WMA during the days production while using the same rolling pattern, thereby enforcing the easier compaction advantage of the warm-mix asphalt. Many in the group correctly noted that there was nothing different about the paving operation to differentiate the HMA and WMA processes.


Previous successful demos were held in Floyd Co on Hwy 218 with Mathy Construction using Revix / Evotherm 3G to make WMA and in Cherokee Co. on Hwy 143 where Tri-State Paving (OMG) demonstrated the use of Sasobit wax additive to produce WMA.

These three projects will be used by the IDOT to create the new Developmental WMA Specification expected in early 2010.

Our thanks go out to all our attendees, Scott Schram, John Hinrichsen and the IDOT, Greg Kinser and the DMA employees for being gracious hosts, Richard Draheim of Astec , John Bellizzi, Larry Mattusch, and, of course, Minnie Coree for making this event and the WMA experience a great success story.