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Reporting on innovative products
and strategies for building better, safer roads
June/July 1999
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Outstanding in the Field: Lead States
Pavement Maintenance Demos
New machines and materials, however promising, can be risky for highway
agencies. After all, until an agency actually tries it out, there’s no
knowing how well it will serve the agency’s needs or be received by its staff.
To give State and local agencies a hands-on look at new pavement maintenance
techniques and materials, the Lead States team for innovative pavement
maintenance materials is conducting, for the second year, a series of field
demonstrations.
Field demonstrations give agencies with limited budgets the confidence to
invest in innovation. "It’s one thing to look at glossy cover shots,"
said Lee Smithson of the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Lead
States team leader. "But it’s another to put a machine into the field
where people who know how to use it work shoulder-to-shoulder with people who
are interested in knowing. And we try to hold these events as near as possible
to State borders so that other States with limited budgets can also send people."
On April 1819, the Lead States team held a field demonstration at a
exposition in Ames, Iowa. The event offered nearly 900 people from the Iowa
DOT, county and city agencies, and other States the chance to see what Smithson
called "field demos put on by people who actually use the products and
procedures." After an afternoon of classes covering everything from
excavation safety to mowing and herbicides, the participants moved outside
the next morning to look at innovative pavement maintenance techniques and
materials, including spall patching, pothole patching, and crack and joint
sealing. As John Selmer of Iowa DOT and a Lead States team member notes,
the demo focused on "meeting the needs of the equipment users."
A second field demonstration was held in Boise, Idaho, on April 29.
Participants from Idaho, Oregon, and Washington State traveled to the Western
Idaho Fairgrounds, where they spent the morning in classes and the afternoon
in the field. Focused on pavements, this event promoted early preventive
maintenance strategies.
Organizers "encouraged participants to consider alternatives to standard
seal coats and chip coats, such as slurry seals and microseals," says
Clayton Sullivan of Idaho DOT and a member of the Lead States team. Slurry
seals, which had been proven effective by the Strategic Highway Research Program
(SHRP), require no rolling and create no dust. Microseals, brought from Europe
especially for use in filling wheel ruts, offer the advantage of rapid setting,
often allowing traffic to return within 1 hour after application. Other products
featured included a SHRP-evaluated two-part polymer for concrete pavement repair
and a cost-effective treatment for sealing cracks in asphalt pavement.
"People tend not to seal cracks correctly," said Sullivan, "and
we demonstrated to them how to do it."
Both events highlighted velocity-fill pothole patchers, automated devices
that propel aggregate and asphalt through a hose at high velocity and compact
patches without using a compactor. These automated pothole patchers were also
found highly effective and efficient by SHRP.
The field demonstrations, said Smithson, are "win-win situations. The
vendors can demonstrate their products in the field, State champions can
demonstrate technologies to other agencies, and learners benefit most of all.
This is effective technology transfer."
A third Lead States field demonstration was held in southeastern Pennsylvania
on May 12. Approximately 60 people from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and
New Jersey gathered in Concordville, Pennsylvania, to see pavement maintenance
equipment demonstrations by both users and vendors. Attendees included State
highway agency personnel, city and county highway workers, engineering
consultants, and equipment vendors and contractors. The City of Philadelphia
demonstrated its portable pothole recycling equipment, while Delaware DOT
operated its velocity spray injection pothole patcher and Pennsylvania DOT
brought in a crew from Lancaster County to demonstrate its pothole repair
machine. In addition, two manufacturers demonstrated the latest in crack
sealing/filling equipment.
"Bringing technology in action to the people who need it was a huge
success," says Joseph Huerta of FHWA. "There were many enthusiastic
recommendations that similar workshops be held." As a result,
Pennsylvania DOT and FHWA are planning to hold another demonstration this fall.
For more information on the field demonstrations or the Lead States team on
innovative pavement maintenance materials, contact John Selmer at Iowa DOT
(phone: 515-239-1589; fax: 515-239-1005; email:
jselmer@max.state.ia.us),
Clayton Sullivan at Idaho DOT (phone: 208-334-8405; fax: 208-334-8595; email:
csulliva@itd.state.id.us\), or
Don Wise, Pennsylvania DOT (phone: 717-787-6226; fax: 717-705-5520).
![Field demonstration highlighting use of the velocity-fill pothole patcher.](p3fpo.jpg)
An April field demonstration held by the Lead States team for
innovative pavement maintenance in Boise, Idaho, highlighted use of the
velocity-fill pothole patcher.
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