CRISPS 5th Webinar: New Technology Road Surfacing Constructability Trials in Ethiopia: Planning and Setting Up
May 5, 2022 @ 8.00 am – 9.00 am CEST
Speakers:Dr Gurmel S. Ghataora, University of Birmingham
About the Webinar
This webinar will present early findings from the “Climate-resilient sustainable road pavement surfacing (CRISPS)” research programme funded by the UK Aid’s High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT) in collaboration with the University of Birmingham (UoB), the University of Auckland (UoA), the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the International Road Federation (IRF). The CRISPS project seeks to demonstrate the technical and economic suitability of three technologies, namely fibre mastic asphalt (FMA), modified epoxy asphalt surfacing (MEAS), and modified epoxy chip seal (MECS), for the range of traffic and environmental conditions of high-volume roads typically seen in LICs currently and predicted to occur in the future taking account of the impact of climate change. The project has four main components, namely, deterioration modelling, life cycle modelling, developing an anti-fraud framework, and undertaking constructability trials in Ethiopia. FMA, MEAS, and MECS have been shown to provide climate-resilient roads which are cost-effective in terms of whole life costing and the project is aimed at showing the viability of these technologies in developing countries.
To be held on 05 May 2022 virtually, this webinar will present both the planning and set up phase of the constructability trial for FMA, MEAS and MECS surfacings in Ethiopia through collaboration with the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA).
The webinar will provide brief background information about the FMA, MEAS and MECS surfacings based on experience gleaned from the suppliers of materials, industry experts, and a review of the literature. It will close with a presentation of the information about roads selected for the construction of both trial and control sections, followed by challenges faced by the project in the setting-up stage and how they were overcome.
Registration to the webinar is free, but places are limited, secure your spot now!
Registration open: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ncI5MPdVQauhIXu12z3mug
CRISPS 4th Webinar: Developing a Quality Control Framework for Epoxy Bitumen – From Theory to Practice
March 1, 2022 @ 8.00 am – 9.00 am CET
Speakers: Dr M. E. Torbaghan (Lecturer, UoB), Dr E. Ngezahayo (RF, UoB)
About the Webinar
A quality control system is essential during any road construction or maintenance activities to ensure an extended asset life and lower life cycle cost. Despite the importance of ensuring the quality of road surfacings, the literature suggests that there is a lack of quality control procedures for road surfacing material construction, especially in Low and Middle-income countries, which is leading to poor-quality road surfaces. Further to this, there is limited literature on the control of epoxy asphalt bitumen content.
The webinar will provide a review of existing quality control methods and their application in low and middle-income settings. It will also describe the general components of a quality control system in the construction of road pavements, comprising the following elements: Control of materials and methods; Control of end-product.
This webinar will conclude with an introduction to experimental approaches to the characterisation of chemical and physical performance of epoxy-modified bitumen.
By developing a framework for quality control, higher durability and hence lower life cycle cost can be achieved for the epoxy bitumen road surfacings. This is essential to support the development of climate-resilient and sustainable roads that are able to manage changes in climate, e.g. hotter seasons, more extreme precipitation events, and sea-level rise that impinge on road pavement performance in Low and Middle-Income countries. Failure to account for such impacts in future road design, maintenance, and operations planning could cause accelerated road deterioration and higher road use costs, thereby severely constraining socio-economic development.
Registration is free, but places are limited. Join us on 1st March 2022 from 8:00 to 9:00 am CET (7:00-8:00 GMT) to learn more about this project and methodology.
CRISPS 3rd Webinar: Epoxy Modified Bitumen – Performance from Laboratory Test, Trials and Applications to Date
December 14, 2021 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am CET
Speakers: Dr Theuns Henning (Senior Lecturer, UoA), David Alabaster (Principal Pavements Engineer, Waka Kotahi)
About the Webinar
Roads are the backbone of any countries’ economy and communities’ socio-wellbeing. Sparsely populated regions around the world rely heavily on their roads for the transportation of goods and people. Unbound granular pavements with conventional chip seals are ideal for using local labour and materials. Surfaces require considerable maintenance using appropriately skilled labour, typically every 8-12years on high-volume roads. This makes them less than ideal for Low-Income Countries (LICs) with restricted maintenance budgets. Pavements containing asphaltic layers can be built to require little maintenance over long periods but are expensive to build, require specialist skills, and expensive construction machinery.
Of additional concern with traditional technologies in Africa’s LICs is their performance on roads subject to prolonged periods of extreme temperatures, since this can lead to bitumen bleeding/tracking down the road and road surfaces being torn apart. Climate change is expected to increase the duration and number of such extreme temperature events in parts of Africa and Asia. This research investigates the feasibility of using Modified Epoxy bitumen in Porous Asphalt (MEAC) and Chip Seals (MECS) which addresses climate-related issues with conventional bitumen in asphalt and chip seal. This technology can be used to build unbound granular pavements (locally built with as much or as little labour as desired) with MECS and MEAC which would produce a long-life pavement with little need for maintenance. It would also need low investment in machinery. Initial research outcomes suggested these surfaces have the potential to last more than 40 years.
This webinar presented some early findings from the “Climate resilient sustainable road pavement surfacing (CRISPS)” research programme funded by the UK Aid’s High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT) in collaboration with the University of Birmingham (UoB), the University of Auckland (UoA), the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the International Road Federation (IRF). The webinar covered an introduction to the Epoxy Modified Bitumen performance from laboratory test, trials and applications to date. It also provided the methodology used for calibrating HDM-4 deterioration models using Long-term Performance Programme data and laboratory results.
CRISPS 2nd Webinar: Fibre Mastic Asphalt Technology – A Novel Material for More Resilient Roads
April 15, 2021 @ 9:00 am – 10:00 am CEST
Speaker: Prof Ratna Muniandy (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
The International Road Federation, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham (UoB), the University of Auckland (UoA) and the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), is pleased to present the 2nd CRISPS Webinar with the theme “Fibre Mastic Asphalt Technology – A Novel Material for More Resilient Roads”.
Certain types of flexible road pavement can suffer fatigue damage either due to overloading, poor construction or inadequate drainage. Such damage can result in fatigue cracking and rutting leading to the formation of potholes and unacceptable levels of road roughness. This necessitates increased maintenance and road use costs. An innovative Fibre Mastic Asphalt (FMA) technology has been developed at the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) over the last 25 years to address these issues on Malaysia’s roads. The main ingredient of FMA, cellulose fibre, is produced from the empty fruit bunch of oil pam trees. The selective combination of the fibre and the tailored aggregate gradation have been shown to provide a superior technology for road construction.
Research at UPM on the use of cellulose oil palm fibre showed that the inclusion of palm fibre in asphalt enhanced the quality of flexible road pavement through micro reinforcement. An assessment of in-service roads constructed using FMA has shown an increase in strength, less fatigue cracking, rutting and lower levels of road roughness and consequential lower road use costs, compared to those constructed from conventional asphalt. As a result, the lifespan of the FMA based road pavements are up to 10 years greater than those constructed from conventional materials.
Programme:
Speakers:Dr M. Burrow (UoB), Dr T. Henning (UoA), Dr G. Ghataora (UoB), S. Zammataro (IRF), Prof R. Muniandy (UPM) and Dr B. Obika (IMC Worldwide).
About the Webinar
One or several simultaneous changes in climate, e.g. hotter seasons, more extreme precipitation events and sea level rise could severely impinge on road performance in Low Income Countries (LICs). Failure to account for such impacts in future road design, maintenance and operating planning and protocols, could cause accelerated road deterioration and higher road use costs, thereby severely constraining socio-economic development.
To address this, the CRISPS multi-disciplinary research project will operate over 18 months under the leadership of the University of Birmingham (UoB) and in collaboration with the University of Auckland (UoA), the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the International Road Federation (IRF).
The research project aims to demonstrate the technical and economic suitability of three global best-practice road surfacing technologies for the range of traffic and environmental conditions of high volume roads that typically occur now in LICs and those that are predicted to occur in the future. The technologies evaluated are Modified Epoxy Chip Seals (MECS), Modified Epoxy Asphalt Surfaces (MEAS) and Fibre Mastic Asphalt (FMA) respectively. The technologies are a result of many years of research in New Zealand (MECS and MEAS) and Malaysia (FMA) where their in-situ performance has been demonstrated through trials and they are as a result routinely used in service.
Speakers address the overall introduction to CRISPS project with clear methodology and expected outcomes, data and deterioration modelling for MECS and MEAS, data acquisition and deterioration modelling for FMA, constructability of trial sections in Ethiopia, and the management aspect of the project.
