PHASE II REPORT - Caltrans

Delays in the progress of the research because of personnel transfers and equipment issues
caused the research team to request two no-cost time extensions to the contract. The first was
granted which extended the project for one year through October 2008 and the second one was
not. The result was that there was approximately $75,000 in contract funds unspent and we
were not able to complete the ruggedness testing and test protocols for the ACT nor were we
able to construct test sections to validate the new test methods. The details for the construction
of the test sections are included as an appendix to the final report should some agency wish to
pursue this activity.
7.2 CONCLUSIONS
It is reasonable to conclude that the study, in spite of the delays and setbacks, was successful
in attempting to identify test procedures that relate mixtures produced in the laboratory to field
performance. As stated in the report and summarized above, we unfortunately were not able to
validate the laboratory procedures to performance. Significant progress was accomplished
during this study to develop test procedures that reduce operator bias but more work needs to
be done to possibly improve the ACT test equipment, develop a test protocol, and conduct
ruggedness experiments.
Agencies or industry partners should be encouraged to further the work by conducting field
projects to validate this study and to modify where necessary the test methods proposed.
As often happens with any experimental research study, unanticipated circumstances arose to
preclude this study from reaching a concise and implementable conclusion but the work
conducted and reported on improves the state of the knowledge of slurry surfacing systems.
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