In a recent interview, Kelly Sockwell, Technical Director for Phoenix Industries, discussed details of the just completed southern California racetrack asphalt paving project that utilized the company’s PelletPAVE™ rubber modified binder additive. Below are excerpts from Mr. Sockwell’s interview:
“….First we went in with one of our mobile patching units to repair a few locations where recurring cracking had been a long term problem. These areas were more like fault lines than cracks, they crossed the track in several locations and had been a constantly recurring problem for the track maintenance crew. Our crew saw cut the sections about a foot on either side of the cracks, removed the asphalt down to the base and made the repairs with our PelletPATCH product, a high rubber content hot mix patch material. They also did some spot patches at various locations around the track.
At the request of the owner, the mix for the overlay was a relatively dense graded design to keep the surface texture as closed as possible to provide better traction for the racecars. This dense design created a few challenges. Typically, when using rubberized binders we prefer a gap or open graded mix. For this dense mix we did adjust the fines a little to have room for the rubber particles and we kept the percentage slightly lower than normal.
The mix, a ½” Marshall design, utilized a PG70 -10 base oil with PelletPAVE added as a modifier. The mix was produced at a local drum mix plant where the PelletPAVE was introduced through the RAP collar at a rate of 2% by total weight of mix. The blended binder graded out at a PG76 -16. The 8,000 tons of mix was placed at 2” and compacted to 96 -98%.
We were very excited about this opportunity to prove our product. With racetrack paving you’re asking the mix to do a lot. The lateral loads generated by high performance racecars make aggregate retention and minimizing raveling quite a challenge, but we feel the PelletPAVE rubber modified binder will do the trick.”
Phoenix Industries designs and manufactures a wide variety of equipment and products for the modified asphalt industry.
For more information call: 928-899-6750
E-mail: info(at)PhoenixIndustries(dot)com