2017 Maintenance Schedules Will Have New Specifications

The fall of each year brings about the advertisement of maintenance resurfacing schedules for the following paving season.  While the goal for 2017 schedules was to minimize any specification changes, a few changes are being considered to be incorporated into the contracts.  For surface treatment contracts, a change is proposed for those projects using CRS-2L. Currently, the penetration specifications for CRS-2 and CRS-2L are the same.  However, some field issues with bleeding and whipping of aggregate on projects using CRS-2L lead to a VDOT/Industry meeting in October.  Based on the discussion in this meeting with industry experts and agency officials, it was proposed to adjust the pen value for CRS-2L to 70 to 140.  It is anticipated this change will be incorporated into the 2017 surface treatment contracts.

The 2017 Plant Mix schedules will see three primary specification changes.  The first two are related to the 2016 Incentive Only pilot projects.  These projects had specifications that paid the contractor a bonus for density consistency and AC content consistency.  With the proposed new density specification, contractors will take cores to determine in-place air voids as opposed to the nuclear gauge.  If achieved per specification, the contractor can receive a 5 percent incentive for that lot of material.  In the draft specification, this approach will apply to routes with an AADT of 5,000 or higher.  The second specification change includes an incentive for AC content and aggregate gradation consistency.  This will apply for all SUPERPAVE mixes placed on Plant Mix Schedule contracts.  Again, the contractor will be able to receive a 5 percent bonus if the mix meets certain criteria over the course of the paving season.  The final proposed specification for 2017 addresses the straightness of the longitudinal joints. The language of this specification has not been finalized, but the intent is to define the allowable amount of deviation from a straight line.

As always, make sure to read the contracts and associated addendums.