Construction of Asphalt Pavements

The essential steps in the construction of asphalt pavements consist of selecting proper materials and conducting a proper mix design, delivering the mix in insulated trucks in a smooth way so as to match with paver speed, laying down with a paver, and using a properly selected combination of rollers of desirable weight and type, with correct vibration frequency and/or tire pressure, in a correct rolling pattern. The production of loose hot mix asphalt (HMA) starts in the HMA plant—which can be of either batch or drum type. In a drum plant, the aggregates are dried, heated, and mixed with the asphalt binder in the same drum, which is usually longer than the dryer drum used in a batch plant. Vast majority of currently used drums are of counter flow type, because of better emission controls and greater efficiency of heating reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) material.