Through the innovation and development of new products and “Performance Based” specifications, our goal is to develop products and processes that enable our customers to build and maintain better, safer, longer lasting roads which provide lower overall life cycle costs and less user delays.
Road Science’s™ World-Class Lab is recognized by the AASHTO Accreditation Program (AAP) as being R18 certified. For a complete listing of Road Science’s accreditation details, click here.
The Lab is an essential resource to evaluate a myriad of variables, and is keenly positioned to provide a differentiated service, including the understanding that:
- Not all asphalts are the same as asphalt quality is dependent upon the crude oil(s) processed and the operating conditions (cut point) of the refinery. Additionally refineries are changing their crude slates and operating conditions more often than they did in the past.
- Not all climates are the same, both across geographical and meteorological factors.
- Not all roads or local materials are the same. When it comes to recycling and existing road, each one has its own history of local materials used for construction and subsequent maintenance applications. When using aggregate from a quarry, each state has numerous quarries that produce different quality and geology of aggregates.
- “Maintenance Needs” exceed available budgets. Agencies and municipalities need new technologies that last longer, perform better and do so at a lower life cycle cost.
The lab has three main “Technical Functions”:
- Formulation and Certification
- Testing and formulating asphalt, polymer modified asphalt and asphalt emulsions.
- Mix Designs
- Combining asphalt with field aggregate or road cores and then compacting and testing to verify if finished product meets specification requirements.
- Product Development
- Develop new technologies and performance based specifications for the road construction and maintenance industry.
”Putting it all together” is the Performance Lab, which includes capabilities around:
- Understanding of how both the asphalt binder properties as well as the aggregate properties contribute to overall mixture performance.
- From a “pavement design” perspective, technicians understand how each mixture layer contributes to the overall performance of the pavement.
- Ideally, identify what material or layer properties are needed
Every day, our lab technicians are committed to driving innovation of new materials, tests, application processes, and specifications including:
- Lab experimentation (asphalt modification, mixture preparation, mixture testing, performance test development, etc.)
- Plant and Field Trials – get feedback from agency and applicator and then make necessary changes/adjustments
- Specification Development – work with agency to adapt to locally available materials and help identify QA/QC requirements
- Application Expertise – train quality applicators