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Wednesday, April 04, 2012 |  |
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TXAPA and AGC Meet with TxDOT to Discuss TxDOT’s Proposed Asphalt Pavement Specifications
Mr. Swaner opened the comments from TXAPA by reading to the group the recommendations from TXAPA’s Specification Committee. Mr. Swaner went into detail sharing the concerns of the TXAPA Specification Committee. He explained that TXAPA rejects the proposed special specification to replace Item 340 in its entirety. President Angel followed Mr. Swaner by expanding on some of the points made by Mr. Swaner. He explained that TxDOT appears to be leaning on academia too much and that the nee Table 4 will add a significant cost to the asphalt paving industry. He went on to explain that as an example PG 64-28 was not a viable binder grade in his area of Texas. They explained that the TXAPA Specification has created a sub-committee that will specifically look into the new substitute binders in Table 4 of Item 341 and the proposed recycled binder percentages. The AGC Hot Mix Specification Committee members took turns making comments on behalf of the AGC and they pointed out various issues that they had found in the proposed special specifications. Following these comments there was an open discussion by everyone present on the proposed special specifications. Mr. Rand and Mr. Hazlett explained TxDOT’s approach to the proposed special specifications and how they will fit into the upcoming new 2014 TxDOT Specification Book. Mr. Rand then took the opportunity to address some of the issues presented by TXAPA and the AGC. After further discussion Mr. Rand agreed to accept the comments from TXAPA, the AGC and TxDOT districts and that he would in turn make appropriate modifications to the proposed special specifications. He would then send the special specifications out to industry and TxDOT for a second round of comments before finalizing the special specifications. The above meeting was held as a result of Darren Hazlett, Assistant Section Director of the TxDOT Material and Pavements Section of the Construction Division, transmitting on February 1, 2012 TxDOT’s proposed asphalt pavement Special Specifications to Harold Mullen, TXAPA Executive Vice President, for review and comment by TXAPA and TXAPA members. These Special Specifications are proposed to replace asphalt pavement specification items from the 2004 TxDOT Specification book and their associated special provisions. In particular these special specifications are intended to replace: • Item 340 Dense-Graded Hot-Mix Asphalt (Method) • Item 341 (Special Specification 3224) Dense-Graded Hot-Mix Asphalt (QC/QA) • Item 342 Permeable Friction Course (PFC) • Item 344 Performance-Designed Mixtures • Item 346 Stone-Matrix Asphalt These special specifications will include many of the changes initially made in Special Specification 3224 as well as additional changes that are specific to each item. Due to the significant amount of changes TxDOT also provided a summary of the changes for each specification and a document that will help expedite the review process. First round comments were due back to TxDOT by March 15, 2012. Kyle Swaner, TXAPA Vice President of Technical Programs, coordinated TXAPA’s response. Mr. Swaner will be coordinating TXAPA comments for the second round review when it takes place. If you have any comments that you wish to provide on these proposed special specifications please give Kyle Swaner a call at (512) 312-2099 or send him an email at kswaner@texasasphalt.org. To review or to get a copy of the special specifications that were available for the first round review you can go to either the Texas Asphalt Pavement Association website by clicking here or the Hot Mix Asphalt Center Website by clicking here. The direct links to the proposed special specifications on these two websites are as follows: When the special specifications are released for the second round of comments TXAPA will distribute to TXAPA membership for input. |
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