SCAPA Makes Pitch at SCDOT Research Meeting
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SCAPA Makes Pitch at SCDOT Research Meeting
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| SCDOT's Materials and Research Engineer Merrill Zwanka |
The SC Department of Transportation held its latest Research Topic Solicitation Forum this past month. The solicitation meeting is typically held every few years, in conjunction with the upcoming Federal Fiscal Year, and allows DOT to identify high-priority topics to consider for funding as research projects.
SCAPA's staff submitted a topic for consideration, and made the cut for further consideration at the Construction/Materials section at the meeting. SCAPA's topic, "Feasibility of Increased Fine Aggregate Usage in SC's Construction Materials," is one that many of our major aggregate associate members face with quarry imbalance. SCAPA felt that the available by-product material could assist SCDOT with various pavement applications and could provide an alternative as the industry has seen cement supply issues impacting paving projects. Some examples of pavement applications can be mechanical stabilization for full depth reclamation, aggregate shoulder borrow, and rich interlayers to place in between distressed roadways and overlays. SC has made many strides with fine aggregate on the asphalt side: our members have produced finer SCDOT surface mixes over the past 5 years, and the association partnered with local aggregate producers to release the SCAPA Asphalt Design Guide for Low-Volume Roads and Parking Lots this past decade.
The Construction/Materials topics prioritized were Interlayer Applications as an Alternative to CMRB, Alternative Supplementary Cementitious Materials for SC Concrete, Performance-Based Specs for Concrete Infrastructure, and Laboratory Investigation of % RAP Binder Contribution Using Simplified Balanced Mix Design Procedures.
While SCAPA's topic did not make the priority cut for the Construction/Materials track, we anticipate a great opportunity to partner with SCDOT in the Quality Improvement Committees on this issue in the near future.
