UPM SUCCESS

UPM SUCCESS with City of Tacoma, WA. A challenging test for any cold mix. UPM stays in place where others fail. 

Installed March 2010, in an area that has failed MC (medium cure) cold mix, QPR and other patch materials.

See picture Main & 1.

This road is in terrible shape and the city is not planning to repave.
Bob Gunther, the city manager wanted to try UPM in this area as nothing they have tried worked.If it works here it will work anywhere.

See picture 2.

The street is made with what they call ‘sheet asphalt’. Essentially sand and asphalt from 30 – 40 years ago. It has a couple of chip seal layers on top.  There are several areas in the city with streets made with this kind of asphalt and in this condition. He wants to see how long UPM will last, and if it will lengthen the time between repairs.

See picture 3.

The following pictures from follow up inspection May 2010 demonstrate the superior performance of UPM as it stays in place where other patch materials fail.

The city confirmed that UPM performance would lengthen the time between repairs to this street and others in this shape throughout the city.

See picture 4,5 & 6

The City of Tacoma was incredibly pleased at the performance of UPM in these conditions. 

The road is rutted with deteriorating surface.  It has been a wet spring and all patches are holding up where other have not.

UPM is the only material that has worked in this road.

The demonstration compared UPM seasonal winter grade bag material to competitive bag material. City crews welcomed the seasonally adjusted workability to improve ease and quality of installation as they use year round.

Storage life is a critical element for the city as previous products had to be mixed as needed. The UPM storage life will create opportunity to improve production economics.

Road crews prioritized multiple parameters to evaluate materials; listed in order of priority:

1. Product performance
2. Ease of application
3. Price
4. Locally available

Trail Conditions:

1. Weather conditions were wet and demonstration area was not cleaned of free debris.
2. Installation method was throw and roll.
3. Traffic was high volume and heavy loads.
4. Surrounding asphalt was deteriorated.

See picture 7

The city owns a Hot Mix Plant and will produce UPM next season.

UPM SUCCESS with Chelan County, WA concludes with UPM displacing EZ Street as incumbent supplier

The demonstration compared UPM seasonal winter grade bag material to competitive bag material. Repairs during winter months in Washington State are typically performed during cold wet conditions. Trial temperatures were consistently below 40F. The superior workability of UPM impressed the road crews relative to ease of handling and superior compaction. The UPM repairs remained in place throughout the trial whereas the incumbent material failed in several locations. The picture shows deterioration of incumbent material from Cedar Street. Supervision was provided by Jim Hancock.

The picture shows deterioration of incumbent material from Cedar Street.  Supervision was provided by Jim Hancock.

The county prioritized multiple parameters to evaluate materials; listed in order of priority:

1. Ease of application
2. Product performance
3. Locally available
4. Price

See graph for comparison of Performance, Workability and Storage Characteristics.

Traffic Conditions:

1. Weather conditions were wet and demonstration areas were clean.
2. Traffic volume was low with light loads.
3. Surrounding asphalt was deteriorated.
4. Trial conducted December 2009-March 2010

The incumbent cold mix material was used the previous year with some remaining in potholes.  During the demonstration portion of newly installed incumbent material deteriorated; significant material loss and surface pitting were observed; reference highlighted section of photo.

UPM will replace incumbent for all future cold mix repairs.  Chelan county will use both bag and bulk UPM year round.