FORTA was able to demonstrate our asphalt fiber benefits for both Brevard County, FL as well as NASA in this 1,300-pound fiber project. V.A. Paving, a preferred paver for Brevard County was able to address longitudinal fatigue cracking in this1 ½” mill and fill in the left lane of N. Courtenay Parkway at 17th Street. FORTA-FI has shown to reduce fatigue cracking by up to 95% in both laboratory testing and side by side field evaluations. The FORTA Voyager was used to feed the fibers into the asphalt mix before paving. Using the Voyager makes adding fiber easy because the plant operator can start, stop, and adjust the feed rate to match the production rate of the asphalt plant without interrupting operations. Al Mallard, a vice president at V.A. Paving states

“Everyone was impressed by the application to mix and how it laid on the roadway. There was no impact to equipment or testing. […] The material had no issues”

Mallard shared.

“The only way you could tell it had fiber was when you shoveled it or raked it; then you could see the fibers hanging onto the blade.”

Over the years, asphalt pavement projects reinforced with FORTA-FI have been put to the test in real-world head-to-head Control vs. Fiber trial projects around the country. In these projects, asphalt mixtures reinforced with FORTA-FI have been placed in direct competition with asphalt mixtures that are not reinforced with fiber in order to accurately compare the performance results. The goal with this project is to reduce cracking and extend the life of the overlay by 3 to 5 years.