The Ohio Department of Transportation uses hot mix asphalt from approved ODOT hot mix plants to fill potholes. During the winter months, most of the hot mix plants shut down for the season and roadcrews must use either cold mix asphalt concrete or proprietary bagged cold mix to fill potholes. Generally, asphalt plants make the cold mix ahead of time, so it is available during the winter season. Currently, there are no standard mix design in Ohio for cold mix. As a result, the content and quality of cold mix varies tremendously from plant to plant and from week to week. As pothole repairs fail, we are at a loss to determine if they fail because of bad material, lack of preparation or poor installation or any combination of these. ODOT crews must return to the site to re-patch to keep roads safe for motorists. These repeated repairs are costly, inefficient, expose roadcrews to hazardous conditions and increase the risk of accidents.
Through this research ODOT would like to identify a minimum specifications parameter for cold mix asphalt concrete design and minimum specifications parameter to test the mix design against, identify minimum specifications for proprietary bagged mixed materials and tests that ensure the materials meet the standard specifications. Confirm ODOT crews are employing proper pothole patching protocols. Establishing minimum criteria for cold mix asphalt concrete will provide ODOT with more consistent and better performing materials.
28 мар 2024
