Technical and Economic Development of Efficient Asphalt Multi-Integrated Compaction Technology

The search to perform asphalt compaction process utilizing a single independent roller started over a century ago. Unfortunately, instead of correcting imperfections in the roller's design and operation, the world has performed field compaction of asphalt in three distinct stages with three different rollers. Despite the utilization of three rollers to compact new asphalt layers, premature failure of asphalt mat has been found in in carefully conducted independent audits of governmentappointed agencies.While most of the research work in the asphalt field pointed to the asphalt mix and environmental factors that cause early deterioration of newly constructed asphalt roads, a new roller termed Asphalt Multi Integrated Roller (AMIR) offers better compaction method which corrected the imperfections of the current compaction technologies. Though, the AMIR compaction technology was invented in the 1980s, it has not been widely utilized by the highway construction industry. Independent researchers have established that failure of asphalt mat is due to entry of air and water into the mat. Up to the present time, most road authorities around the world do not have a standard testing method or a minimum value for permeability in compacted asphalt mat to enhance acceptance criteria.This research examined the compacted asphalt mat pavement properties and performance of several field trials using three stage and single stage compaction methods. The trial mats compacted on binder, granular and concrete bridge deck bases. The impartial investigation was conducted over six years and recommends that the effective economical and sustainable way to improve long term performance of asphalt pavements is to replace the current three stage field compaction with the AMIR.