Illinois Pavement Society (IPS) Sponsors Course at ATREL

The Illinois Pavement Society (IPS) sponsored its first event, a wokshop titled, "Bailey Method Principles: A Tool For Evaluating HMA Volumetrics and Field Compactibility," at ATREL on July 7-9, 2009. Mr. Bill Pine from the Heritage Research Group taught this workshop to a room full of IPS members.

The IPS was recently formed under the umbrella of the Illinois Center for Transportation to promote interaction and knowledge exchange about pavement systems among students, researchers, and practitioners.

This course consisted of an intensive look into the Bailey Method and how its principles can be used to control HMA mixes to optimize volumetrics (such as VMA) and field compactability. The Bailey method and its four principles were introduced to help the students understand how aggregate properties affect aggregate packing, which in turn controls volumetrics and compactability. The Bailey method principles have been applied to coarse-graded, fine-graded and SMA mixtures. Mr. Pine provided insight into why small gradation changes, which occur during production and are within tolerances, can cause significant changes to mixture volumetric properties and/or compactability.

For more information about the ISP, contact Debakanta Mishra, President, a dmishra2@illinois.edu.

Photos: Mr. Bill Pine from Heritage Research Group teaches IPS members about the Bailey Method.