Asphalt Binder Adaption for Climatic Conditions in Cold Regions: Alaska Experience

AbstractAsphalt binder adaptation in cold and spacious areas such as Alaska is critical because of varying climates and seasonal extreme conditions. To fully address the binder selection issues in Alaska, this paper presents a study that conducted analysis based on a long-term pavement performance (LTPP) database to reveal the climatic effects on binder selection, followed by evaluation of the laboratory and field performance of hot mix asphalt (HMA) containing neat binder and several currently used modified binders in Alaska. It was found that the recommended high performance grading (PG) grades for the entire Alaska are equal to or lower than 52°C, whereas the low grades in more than 76% of the recorded weather stations in Alaska are recommended to be lower than −28°C. Laboratory testing results showed that HMA with high-end modified binders expressed higher rutting resistance than that containing the neat binder PG 52-28, and HMA with the neat binder displayed the lowest resistance to low-temperature c...