Stretch Your Street Maintenance Dollars
Cities all over Texas are beginning their annual budget cycle in order to be able to pass a balanced budget by the end of September. Public Works officials have identified their street maintenance priorities and are preparing to justify their budget to the City Councils. There is never enough money or resources to satisfy all the needs of a City or County. But what if I told you there was a way to stretch your street maintenance dollars. What if I told you that the streets that you repave this year can get 50 percent or more life expectancy and at the same time, be more rut and crack resistant extending the normal degradation of the pavement condition index.
The innovative and forward thinking officials at the City of Seguin asked that question and have taken the first step to armor their roads. City Engineer, Joe Ramos, PE, and Public Works Manager, John Donnelly asked the right questions and got the right answers.
Why is Aramid Fibers the right choice?
The challenging applications where Aramid Fibers are used every day show the versatility of the high strength, high modulus and temperature resistant fibers. Used in applications from ballistic protection to fire protection while replacing high strength steel reinforcement in other products like tires, hoses, ropes, cables and conveyor belts, Aramid Fiber is a natural fit to reinforce another challenging application, asphalt concrete. The high stability of the mechanical properties throughout a wide range of temperatures make Aramid Fiber the best choice for high temperature mixing and low temperature reinforcement once mixed into the asphalt concrete. It has a tensile strength five times that of steel by weight.
How does Aramid Fibers reinforce flexible and at times brittle asphalt concrete?
The key is the rooting of the hair-like fibrils that root into the liquid binder and binds to the small granules in the mix providing a mechanical bond throughout the asphalt concrete. This process is easily coordinated with any asphalt concrete supplier.
What is ACE Fiber and What will it do for your streets?
ACE Fiber is simply a 50/50 combination of Teijin Aramid and Sansobit wax. Several spools of Aramid Fiber are pulled together to bundle 10,000 fiber strands in each bundle before it is coated with the wax and then cut into ¾- inch pieces. As the ACE Fiber product is carefully metered into the mix at an engineered rate by a certified technician, the wax melts at the relatively low temperature of 190 degrees Fahrenheit, releasing the Aramid Fibers to create a three dimensional reinforcement of the asphalt concrete throughout the thickness of the pavement. The lightweight of the Aramid Fibers and the small amount of wax used, creating ACE Fiber, will not require a change to the mix design or require any specialized application equipment or tools.
The addition of ACE Fiber will significantly improve the strength and durability of the pavement overlay section on Hummingbird Lane in Seguin.
