The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center is the Department of Defense lead for airfield pavements and is responsible for designs and specifications related to all military-funded projects. Research and development efforts at the ERDC Material Test Center Asphalt Lab examine new materials and methods to employ state-of-the-art technologies in all areas of pavements. Asphalt concrete research over the past decade includes successful efforts to establish a new specification for airfield paving based on gyratory compaction, design guidance for using geogrid-reinforcement for flexible pavements, a new specification for using warm-mix asphalt on military airfields, new criteria for pavement preservation methods, and new methods for modeling asphalt concrete behavior under extremely high tire pressure loadings. More recent efforts include exploring laboratory methods of characterizing asphalt mixtures for improved performance predictions.
The Asphalt Laboratory has a full suite of testing capabilities, to include both Marshall Mix Design and Superpave Mix Design options, along with a qualified technician staff, experienced in both laboratory and field testing operations.