Control vs Fiber Projects (State Routes)
Over the years, asphalt pavement projects reinforced with FORTA-FI® have been put to the test in real-world head-to-head Control vs. Fiber trial projects around the country. In these projects, asphalt mixtures reinforced with FORTA-FI have been placed in direct competition with asphalt mixtures that are not reinforced with fiber in order to accurately compare the performance results.
State Route 82, Mississippi
The Mississippi DOT was looking to repair an asphalt overlay on a concrete base. In their efforts to choose the best reinforcement possible, MDOT decided to do a trial project with FORTA-FI. One half of the road was paved with polymer only and the other half with polymer and FORTA-FI.
A one year follow up was completed and the results speak for themselves. The half of the highway reinforced with FORTA-FI shows significantly less cracking compared to the control section.
State Route 45, Pennsylvania
SR45 was divided into two test sections on either side of I-15. On the first night of paving each side a standard PG76-22 mix was used. After that, the remainder of the road was paved using PG64-22 with the addition of FORTA-FI.
District 3-0 is projecting SR45 using PG64-22 with FORTA-FI will perform better than the traditional non-reinforced PG76-22 and provide a tremendous cost savings between the two oils.
State Route 383, New york
NY District 4 wanted to find a substitute for their costly deep mill repair used to fix their transverse reflective cracking problem caused by an old (1930s) concrete base. FORTA-FI was placed in the west bound driving lane of State Route 383 – this section of highway experiences heavier truck traffic than the control side, 70% of which is in the driving lane. The fiber side received a mill/fill instead of the traditional 6” deep mill to be filled with polymerized asphalt.
All other lanes had typical joint repairs and the standard HMA overlay. Using FORTA-FI saved over 4 weeks of construction time, in lieu of the deep mill repair.
