EEI’s PME team conducts both visual and structural assessments of pavement sections. Visual assessment evaluates the current condition of the pavement and identifies the actions required to correct existing problems. Structural assessment evaluates the current engineering properties of the pavement and predicts its present and future behavior to avoid significant / costly structural failures. Based on these assessments the PME team identifies the specific maintenance or rehabilitation treatment for each section of the road or airport pavement system. Depending on the pavement conditions, the identified treatment can be preventive maintenance such as seal coat or micro-surfacing or rehabilitation such as overlay or recycling.
Once the correct treatment is identified, EEI’s PME team prepares site-specific designs. In the case of preventive maintenance only a mix-design will be necessary. In the case of rehabilitation, both mix- and structural-design will be needed. EEI’s PME team is very experienced with the various methods of both mix & structural designs, and can prepare specification and construction drawings. In the case of rehabilitation, State DOT and regional governments offer excellent specifications that can be directly implemented.
In the case of preventative maintenance, the PME team will develop necessary materials and construction specifications using the most advanced technologies. Methods such as micro-surfacing, polymer additives, and recycled materials incorporation may be utilized to extend pavement life. Cutting edge SUPERPAVE research may be utilized to enhance and extend long-term performance. EEI’s PME team has extensive experience with these technologies and offers onsite supervision of construction activities to ensure successful completion of the project as per the required specifications.
EEI’s PME team members worked with NDOT to integrate Superpave methodology into NDOT’s Silver Book Guidance for highway design and construction by preparing new code design, laboratory testing, and Mechanistic-Empirical pavement design and procedures. PME team staff performed the design of the pavement structural sections, and worked with NDOT to evaluate and revise the project’s standard drawings, specifications, and plans for portions of Highways I-580, US-395, I-80 and I-15.
PME team members also redesigned the aggregate crushing program for portions of I-80 and I-580 to bring diverse materials from different sites into a mix that would not only comply with NDOT standards, but also reduced trucking and material handling costs. PME team staff also reconfigured and redesigned the materials processing system to reduce materials handling, add innovative rubber and polymer blending/recycling materials, and established a new laboratory for material QC testing – all of which reduced construction costs significantly.
EEI’s PME team staff are experts in Hot Mixed Asphalt (HMA) pavement design and evaluation. Team members have conducted advanced testing of HMA mixtures; evaluated the stiffness and rutting ME resistance of HMA mixtures under the impact of moisture damage; evaluated and compared the performance of HMA mixtures designed with the Superpave system and the Nevada DOT mix design method; used the Superpave simple shear and the resilient modulus tests to evaluate the mechanical properties of HMA mixtures and the impact of moisture damage on such properties; evaluated the properties of the asphalt binders extracted and recovered from both mixtures to evaluate their aging characteristics.
For airports up to and including Class B Airports, PME team staff have assessed pavement conditions for rehabilitation of taxiways and runways, and conducted geotechnical investigation for design and reconstruction of taxiways, including those with highly expansive subgrade soils. Quality assurance testing and submittal review were performed for reconstruction of taxiways, terminal aprons and cargo aprons at Imperial County Airport, Imperial, California; Pt. Mugu Naval Base, Pt. Mugu, California; and O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois.
EEI’s PME Technical Advisor, Dr. Peter E. Sebaaly, PhD, PE, is a world renowned expert who assists international and U.S. federal, state, and local agencies revise and improve pavement design methods, materials and construction specifications, and pavement management activities. EEI’s Advisor also offers technical advice to private industry to produce materials that meet the strict requirements of agency specifications in the areas of modified asphalt mixtures (polymer, tire rubber, and Integra-base), recycling of asphalt mixtures, and warm mix asphalt mixtures.
EEI’s PME Team has worked with the following selected agencies:
- Several US State and local Departments of Transportation
- Qatar Public Works Authority (PWA): Construction Specifications 2016-QCS
- The Ministry of Public Works of Egypt: Cold In-Place Recycling (CIR) activity and presented guidance on the mix design of CIR materials.
- The Ministry of Public Works of Chile, implementing Superpave technology for the specifications of asphalt binders and the design of asphalt mixtures.
- Collaborating with Infinite Civil Solutions, a Pavement Consulting Co. in India to develop durable designs for pavements on major highways in India.
PME Team are members of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM), the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
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