4/29/99

Jim Killian, 844-4218

AUBURN ASPHALT TEST TRACK WILL RIVAL TALLADEGA, DAYTONA

AUBURN -- With the exception of Talladega and Daytona, Auburn University's National Center for Asphalt Technology will soon be operating the largest track in the Southeast.

It is being built in Lee County through the support of the Alabama Department of Transportation, the AU College of Engineering-based Highway Research Center and academic departments such as Civil Engineering.

With grading nearly complete, the next steps are paving and building support structures; completion is anticipated by the end of the year.

The differences and similarities between Talladega and the Auburn track are in the eye of the beholder.

Talladega: 2.66 mile oval, 33 degree banking.
Auburn: 1.75 mile oval, 15 degree banking.
Talladega: seating 100,000+
Auburn: seating in driver's lounge only
Talledega: 3,500 pound stock car
Auburn: tractor with three trailers, each axle loaded to 18,000 pounds.
Talladega: winner makes millions
Auburn: winner saves millions

The winners at Auburn, says NCAT director Ray Brown, are the drivers and taxpayers of Alabama, as well as other cooperating state departments of transportation.

"This track represents a giant leap forward for the DOTs and industry members involved," Brown says. "It will allow them to test asphalt road surfaces in tightly controlled conditions, in an accelated time frame."

Once the base course for the $6 million track is laid down, special test sections of asphalt will be overlaid, each containing a different kind of mix, or asphalt recipe.

Four or five carefully calibrated tractor-trailer rigs will circle the track 15 hours a day, day in and day out, putting down 10 million impressions over a two-year period.

"The 18,000 pounds placed on each axle are defined as equivalent single axle loads, and will in a two-year period simulate traffic that would occur on a state highway in its lifetime of 10 to 15 years," says Brown.

As testing is finished, the roadway will be analyzed for wear.

"We expect that some sections will withstand this kind of traffic for the length of the trials, while other sections may be destroyed by factors such as rutting, which is a problem we commonly look at," Brown says.

He adds that the track is primarily being built to test the longevity of asphalt pavements, but that smoothness -- what the driver feels going down the road -- and safety factors such as friction coefficients will be analyzed as well.

"This is going to be the only track of its kind when operations begin," Brown says. "One reason is the expense in running an operation with this level of sophistication."

In addition to "an impressive amount of support from the Alabama DOT," Brown notes that the states of Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana and North Carolina are also involved. Other state DOTs may join in the future, he adds.

The expected payback to citizens will be hundreds of millions of dollars saved in construction and maintenance costs.

"Carefully defined research efforts are ultimately the most efficient and economical way to improve a product or a process," Brown added. "What we have in this facility is a unique, state of the art test facility that will return its investment many times over."

apr99:AU-asphalt