Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Road Research

MnROAD and NCAT Partnership

Orange barrels on a highway

Pavement Preservation

National partnership to determine the life extending benefit curves of pavement preservation techniques

The Minnesota DOT Road Research Project (MnROAD) and National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) have formed a partnership to evaluate Pavement Preservation treatments. The objective of the Preservation Group (PG) experiment is to quantify the life-extending benefits of pavement preservation on both low- and high-volume roadways. Over twenty agencies are supporting this pooled fund study along with Foundation of Pavement Preservation PF2 and FHWA though national pooled fund TPF-5(375). In 2019, cold recycle sections were constructed near MnROAD to compliment the suite of cold recycling sections on US 280 in Opelika, Alabama.

History and test sections

Test sections for both the southern and northern test sections were built by one contractor, same treatments, and similar designs with locally found materials. Test sections were built outside of the MnROAD and NCAT test tracks. Great care was taken to reduce variables.

Performance monitoring

Both MnDOT and NCAT staff are collecting data in similar ways to allow for similar analysis of data. Collection of performance data are using automated and manual method. The following testing schedule is being followed along with the collection of weather data. MnDOT is looking into ways to test in the winter also as we learn more about the equipment limitations. See spreadsheet (XLS) (updated 4/22/2020).

Field reviews

Reporting and resources

Study Data

Pooled fund studies details

NCAT (Alabama DOT) lead the first pooled fund and then MnDOT is now leading the current pooled fund for this project. NCAT is currently contracted by MnDOT to work on the second phase of this study. MnDOT is also using pooled funds to assist in the management and data collection being done for the northern test sections. Details of the efforts, along with quarterly reports, can be found at the pooledfund.org websites or use the links below.

Study contacts

Minnesota contacts
NCAT contacts