MnROAD | NRRA | Structure & Teams | Flexible Team
Perpetual Pavement Test Sections in Wet-Freeze Climates
Status: Developing RFP
Objective
The objective of this project is to provide NRRA agency members guidance on perpetual pavement designs, a sustainable design alternative, by constructing test sections in WI and at MnROAD. Perpetual pavement (PP) design philosophy will be validated and refined with regional materials, further allowing NRRA states to take advantage optimizing fiscal and environmental performance. This will be accomplished by instrumenting two pavement sections on I-94 near Eau Claire, Wisconsin (WI) and three sections on MnROAD I-94 mainline. It is a unique opportunity to collaborate between NRRA agency states to share resources, further leverage WisDOT’s construction funding, and solve problems together, thus allowing for a much broader impact than working individually.
WisDOT is constructing a deep strength asphalt design and a PP design section on I-94 between Northfield to Osseo, WI in 2022 or 2023. WisDOT has collaborated with MnROAD, through the NRRA Flexible Team, to design an instrumentation array that will be embedded in the pavement structure to measure in-situ PP responses to validate and refine the latest version of PerRoad, PP Design Program.
$60,000 of NRRA funding is being requested for to provide instrumentation for WI and MnROAD sites. No additional construction funding is being requested for the WI sections and MnROAD’s data collection/ storage infrastructure will be used for both sites. Additionally, a $150,000 research contract is requested to provide:
- Analysis of the instrumentation data collected from the perpetual pavement sections to validate existing (update transfer functions) and new PerRoad PP design philosophy (cumulative strain distribution).
- Laboratory testing to properly characterize HMA layers for PP design.
- Comparison of conventional PP sections / PP sections built at MnROAD using recycling/reclamation techniques.
Project team
Email the Project Team
Technical Liaison: Michael Vrtis, MnDOT, michael.vrtis@state.mn.us
Project Technical Advisory Panel (TAP): Contact us to join this TAP
- Brandon Brever, MAPA
- John Garrity, Minnesota DOT
- Pete Kemp, Wisconsin DOT
- Tirupan Mandal, Wisconsin DOT
- Raul Velasquez, Minnesota DOT
- Michael Vrtis, Minnesota DOT (TL)
- Fabricio Leiva Villacorta, NCAT
- Charles Wienrank, Illinois DOT
- Richard Willis, NAPA
- Hao Yin, Horizon Engineering Consulting
- Fujie Zhou, Texas A&M University
Related materials
- Initial idea proposal (pdf), 4/20/2021