Tarver milled 4 inches from the existing 4,080-foot runway and applied 2 inches of an asphalt binding course and 2 inches of an asphalt wearing course using a PG 76-22 mix design, a higher mix than the required PG 64-22 mix design.
“For what they were looking for from the airfield, we wanted to make sure the product was something we could stand behind,” says Tarver CEO Jarred Tarver. “They land some big planes out there, and it’s not just like driving a truck over it. We wanted to make sure we were providing top quality.”
The airstrip was last paved approximately four to five years ago, but sees 1,500 landings per year. “Due to all the training rotations, each month we have a new unit come in, and the aircraft that comes with it, so it definitely gets a lot of use,” says Capt. Richard Jordan, Project Engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
Tarver had to complete the project between March 27 and May 1, 2015, and milled the runway in four days using two 12-foot milling machines, followed by a test section for the USACE. Once approved, Tarver paved roughly 1,200 tons a day for the binding course.
The runway was finished meeting the project smoothness specefications, with an International Roughness Index (IRI) of 37.9 and a profile index average of 0.24.
The award is named for Ray Brown, who served many years as Director of the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.