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![Group of road construction workers in safety vests and helmets on a roadway during sunset, with construction equipment.]()
PA Turnpike Interlayer
In September 2024, a high-performance asphalt test section was placed on Milepost 146 of the westbound lanes of I-76, better known as the Pennsylvania Turnpike—the nation’s oldest turnpike. Designed to address chronic cracking issues on aging concrete pavement, the project introduced a reflective crack relief asphalt interlayer (RCRAI) reinforced with aramid fiber designed by Blankenship Asphalt Tech & Training (BATT).
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![A smiling woman standing in a laboratory. She is wearing a black shirt with a logo that reads 'BATT BLANKENSHIP Asphalt Tech & Training.' The lab has stainless steel workbenches, scientific equipment, and pink walls.]()
BATT Lab’s new capabilities
With our recent expansion, we have space to add more equipment to increase our capacity and variety for binder testing. These upgrades mean faster turnaround times, more robust testing capabilities, and even more ways to support the development of high-performing asphalt materials tailored to our customers’ project needs.
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![Taylor Airport]()
Easy-install interlayers
A custom asphalt mix design from BATT gave the Taylor County Airport in Kentucky a new lease on life. BATT applied its asphalt engineering expertise to design an easy-install asphalt pavement interlayer that could be produced in plant with existing paving equipment and saved the airport money by eliminating expensive third-party interlayer contractors.
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![Comparison of a cracked asphalt runway labeled 'Central Kentucky Regional Airport Runway BEFORE' and a smooth, freshly paved runway labeled 'AFTER'.]()
Best practices for airport asphalt paving
In August 2023, BATT’s team of asphalt experts wrapped up a project that combined an in-depth pavement condition analysis with a unique blend of advanced materials and advanced asphalt quality assurance (QA) testing to create a strategy that could well become the standard-bearer for changing best practices in asphalt pavements.
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![Lampton Street]()
High RAP content pavements
In 2020, BATT tested a new asphalt mix design for the City of Louisville that offered the potential to recycle a far greater percentage of RAP using an EPD-listed reinforcement agent. Two years later, the asphalt engineering services provided by BATT have yielded impressive results.
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![Close-up of a freshly paved asphalt road and gravel shoulder in the top half, with a road roller and another construction vehicle working on the road surface in the bottom half under a clear blue sky.]()
Budget friendly airport asphalt runway repair
In 2022, Palmer Engineering called on the asphalt experts at BATT to assess a general aviation airport in Madisonville, KY. Its 15-year-old runway needed to address a condition of high cracking and raveling. BATT applied its asphalt testing resources and know-how to not only solve the problem but stay within the budget as well.
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![paving sunset]()
NCAT pavement trials
Asphalt engineering and asphalt testing services from BATT enabled Surface Tech to put its aramid reinforcement product to a rigorous test at the prestigious NCAT institution in Opelika, AL.
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![paver with workers]()
New chemistry to improve neat asphalt
BATT supplied civil engineering support to help BASF test a modification technology designed to improve adhesion of the asphalt mix by cross-linking the liquid binder. The asphalt binder modification technology, called “B2Last” brings a new type of science to asphalt paving technology..
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![Comparison of Mercer Road with a faded and worn asphalt surface in fall 2020 and a newer, smoother asphalt surface in fall 2022.]()
High RAP for high sustainability
The Lexington/Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) was searching for pavement solutions that would provide improved sustainability, and the asphalt experts at BATT had a proven solution to offer. BATT worked with a new combination of additives that not only extended pavement life, but also offered the opportunity to include a higher percentage of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) to the asphalt mix.
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![sulfur pile and asphalt samples]()
Product development: Uberbinder
.As a premier laboratory for asphalt testing, BATT assisted the creators of Uberbinder, a promising new solution for lowering CO2 in asphalt paving using polymerized sulfur. After examining the fundamentals of how Uberbinder bonds, BATT testing found it works extremely well as an asphalt replacement binder and has great potential to help the asphalt industry build sustainable, flexible pavements while lowering CO2
Turn Down the Heat.
Refine the Feedstock.
How NAFCO Achieves 100% RAP Asphalt
With millions of tons of asphalt pavement millings stockpiled across the U.S., the asphalt industry faces growing pressure to turn those materials back into performance-ready pavement. NAFCO (aka necoTECH), based in the Columbus, Ohio area, has met that challenge by producing asphalt mixes using 100% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), more than double the amount in a 2022 industry survey conducted by the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA)*. This achievement is made possible through controlled heat technology and a new philosophy that treats millings as refinable feedstock.
As the survey revealed, RAP asphalt mixtures typically incorporate 10 to 30 percent RAP. NAFCO’s advancement processes RAP using an indirect heating method that prevents scorching or overheating of the asphalt binder. By preserving binder properties, NAFCO can produce high-quality 100% RAP asphalt mixes, an achievement that significantly advances the industry’s ability to turn reclaimed materials into usable pavement.
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