Candidate for fully permeable shoulder retrofit validation site
2020-2021 UCPRC Update. During the pandemic, the UCPRC has continued working with its clients and partners by following established safety guidelines. Among the Center’s ongoing work are the two projects described below.
First Project (3 photos). ADDING IN-PLACE RECYCLED MATERIALS DATA TO THE CalME DESIGN SOFTWARE. As part of a project to update the standard materials library in the CalME pavement design software, the UCPRC collected samples and performed field testing on state and local pavements that include partial-depth and full-depth recycled material. UCPRC staff conducted these activities from August through October 2020, visiting 21 state highway and local road pavements. Data from the test results were added to CalME’s materials properties database, and used to improve and calibrate the software’s FDR and PDR performance models. This augmented database puts Caltrans at the forefront of implementing asphalt pavement in-place recycling designs.
Second Project (7 photos). UCPRC SUPPORTS CALTRANS CAPITOL CITY CORRIDOR PROJECT. Paving on the Sacramento I-5 Capitol City (Cap City) Corridor Project wrapped up for the 2020 paving season in December and will resume spring 2021. The project reaches from its southern end south of Elk Grove Boulevard and extends north to the American River Viaduct in Caltrans District 3 (Post Miles 9.7 to 24.9). The UCPRC is serving as a research and quality assurance consultant on the project, aiding both Caltrans HQ and North Region Construction. Construction began in fall 2019 and is scheduled to end in 2022 (roughly 440 working days). The project was awarded in March 2019 to a joint venture between Granite Construction and Teichert Inc. with the winning bid for approximately $275 million. Notably, the project is the first in California and the US that will use performance-related testing as part of daily construction quality assurance, not just in mix design approval prior to construction.
Among the UCPRC’s contributions to the project are the performance-related specifications it developed for the project’s approximately 350,000 tons of long-life, hot mix asphalt, and the mechanistic-empirical software program CalME that Caltrans District 3 used to design the long-life pavement structure.
Prior to the 2020 paving season, the UCPRC also tested and approved seven project-specific mix designs that were used to construct the three-layer long-life pavement (LLP) system used in the project.
During the break between paving seasons, the UCPRC is conducting a review and re-verifying the 2020 mix designs before the 2021 paving season begins. The results of the project will be used to improve the current performance-related specifications (PRS), including the sampling and testing approaches. UCPRC staff will also continue to support District 3 with construction testing until completion of the project.