Equipment World Digital Magazine
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should not be confused with open- graded friction course (OGFC). OGFC is often used as a surface layer on highways to help mitigate hydroplaning and improve trac- tion. Porous pavement, on the other hand, goes much deeper than that, literally. It is a full-depth pavement with a water-collection basin as a part of its design. "Porous asphalt is really grow- ing," Dylla says. For example, Commercial Street, a main artery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, was paved with porous asphalt. "The porous asphalt helped keep the beaches open during the entire tourist season, where before they would close because of stormwater contamination caused by runoff from the street." Thin overlays for pavement preservation With shrinking DOT budgets and no long-term transportation funding bill in sight, more state and local governments are using pavement preservation techniques in an effort to simply maintain their roads. A number of techniques are being used, including simple crack seal- ing, chip seals, and micro-surfacing, but the one that seems to be trend- ing the most is thin overlays, or Thinlays. Thinlays are a pavement reha- bilitation technique where a thin layer of asphalt is placed on top of an existing pavement to extend its life and performance. In addition to pavement preservation, they are also used to fix roads considered unsafe or too noisy. They also help preserve a road in a way that allows for a better allocation of resources and budget, Dylla says. Texas, for example, has pioneered thin over- lay mixes as thin as 1/2-inch thick. Perpetual pavement Since the majority of roadwork these days focuses on maintenance, there aren't many new roads being built from the ground up. But when a new road is built, NAPA would like to see perpetual pavement designs being used. West admits, however, that while perpetual pavement is a good engineering approach, there's not much op- portunity to build new pavements. "A long-term highway bill might help to some degree," he says, March 2015 | EquipmentWorld.com 60 highway contractor | continued Still Using Paper Time Cards in 2015? Cut foremen entry time in half with HeavyJob Mobile Apps and... Reduce payroll processing by as much as 90% Know if jobs are profi table with same-day feedback against budget Work offl ine for remote jobs with no internet Train foremen quickly with easy-to-use time card Integrate with over 35 accounting systems Low risk—Software comes with a 12-month money back guarantee! Call us at 800-683-3196 at www.HCSS.com Learn More This illustration shows the different layers of porous asphalt pavement, which includes a water-collection basin as a part of its design.