Warm Mix Asphalt For Australian Airports

Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is a viable alternate to Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) for airport surfacing in Australia. Limited experience with this technology at Australian airports has prevented its acceptance by airport owners and their designers. WMA does have a significant track record in Europe and the USA, where it has been demonstrated to provide significant environmental, safety, quality and construction flexibility benefits. Differences in available binders and the Australian tendency for thinner asphalt layers and less capable materials makes direct extrapolation of experience from Europe and the USA inappropriate. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the comparative performance of WMA (by foamed bitumen technology) to HMA as an airport surface layer. Comparison between HMA and WMA has been made during a number of projects at Australian airports since 2012. A formal trial was performed at a military airfield as part of a broader project in 2013. A combination of production verification, quality assurance and mix performance tests were used to make comparisons. Subject to ongoing monitoring and performance testing of the military airfield WMA trial section, WMA is now verified as a viable alternate surfacing material for Australian airport runways