Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Road Research

MnROAD and NCAT Partnership

Orange barrels on a highway

MnROAD | NCAT/MnROAD Partnership

Pavement Preservation

The Minnesota DOT Road Research Project (MnROAD) and National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT), and the National Center for Pavement Preservation 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 have and supporting three pooled fund studies along with Foundation of Pavement Preservation PF2 and FHWA. In 2019, cold recycle sections were constructed near MnROAD to compliment the suite of cold recycling sections on US 280 in Opelika, Alabama with the support from the Pavement Preservation & Recycling Alliance (PPRA). The latest pooled fund is focused on the development and support of test sections with the participating agencies.

Pooled Fund Studies

Details of the efforts, along with quarterly reports, can be found at the pooledfund.org websites or use the links below.

History and test sections (PG1 and PG2)

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).

Reporting and resources

Study contacts

Minnesota contact
NCAT contact
NCPP contact