By Richard Wilhelm

Sep 01, 2016

Photo courtesy of Rowan University; © 2016 Craig Terry

Developing innovative ways to improve transportation infrastructure is one of the leading engineering challenges of this era. Fortunately, the staff at the Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering systems, or CREATEs, are using ASTM standards to help find infrastructure solutions.

CREATEs is located in the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University, in Glassboro, New Jersey. It is the only center in the northeast section of the United States that has facilities to conduct accelerated pavement testing. This includes a fully instrumented accelerated pavement testing facility and a heavy vehicle simulator, which can imitate decades of wear and tear on roads in a matter of months.

According to its website, CREATEs mission is “to find innovative solutions to current and future challenges related to pavement materials and transportation engineering. These solutions will benefit the pavement and construction materials industry in the region, local and state agencies across the nation, the Federal Highway Administration and the Department of Defense.”

A partnership among state, federal, and industry partners, as well as support from Rowan, led to the development of CREATEs. The facility is scheduled to officially open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 14. 

CREATEs is certified by the AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory and runs many AASHTO and ASTM tests, particularly in the areas of asphalt binding and asphalt mixture. 

“ASTM standards are an integral part of CREATEs,” says Yusuf Mehta, director, CREATEs, and a professor at the Rowan University Construction Materials Laboratory. “Several of the test procedures are ASTM standards for construction materials that will be used on a daily basis to evaluate materials at CREATEs.” 

ASTM standards from the committees on petroleum products, liquid fuels and lubricants (D02); road and paving materials (D04); and roofing and waterproofing (D08) are regularly used at CREATEs. Some of these standards include: 

• D2872, Test Method for Effect of Heat and Air on a Moving Film of Asphalt (Rolling Thin-Film Oven Test;
• D6307, Test Method for Asphalt Content of Asphalt Mixture by Ignition Method
• D6521, Practice for Accelerated Aging of Aphalt Binder Using a Pressurized Aging Vessel (PAV);
• D6925, Test Method for Preparation and Determination of the Relative Density of Asphalt Mix Specimens by Means of the Superpave Gyratory Compactor.

Staff at CREATEs are currently involved in various research projects, including:

• Evaluation of new or innovative flexible and rigid pavement materials in a quick and timely manner;
• Relating construction quality to performance of rigid and flexible pavements; and
• Determining cost effectiveness and life-cycle analysis for new or innovative paving materials in a quick and timely manner.

For more information, visit the CREATEs website.