‘Quiet’ pavement is tested

Ever been blinded by the glare created by water gathered on the road at night or by a massive load of water kicked up by tractor-trailers during heavy rains?

It could be several years down the line, but those issues could become increasingly rare if all goes well with the testing of a new material called Porous Friction Course on a stretch of road in the Manassas area.

The new material allows air and water to "seep down from the road surface away from the tires," minimizing hydroplaning, splash and spray and improve visibility on rainy nights, a VDOT news release states.

The Virginia Department of Transportation paved an inch of the asphalt overlay on a stretch of Va. 234 between Balls Ford Road and Sudley Manor Drive at the end of August, said Mike Salmon, VDOT spokesman.

"We're targeting a section with good traffic volumes, traveling at reasonable speeds," Salmon said, noting that for now researchers are avoiding areas with speed limits more than 45 mph.

Scientists with the Virginia Transportation Research Council, a division of VDOT in Charlottesville, will be monitoring the pavements performance after six months and a year as a part of the roughly $500,000 project, according to VDOT. About 80 percent of the funding came from the Federal Highway Administration and the rest was footed by VDOT.

Testing of a similar pavement mix was conducted on Interstate 81 during the 1980s, Salmon said, but problems with black ice arose and the material had to be removed.

So its performance in freezing weather conditions will be one of the main things researchers will be looking for.

Among the other factors the scientists will be monitoring are ride quality, texture, drainability and whether the mix leads to premature failure of the underlying layers of pavement, VDOT stated.

"We'll be monitoring things closely to make sure we don't proliferate a technology that isn't a good fit," Kevin McGhee, VTRC senior scientist who is leading the project, said in an e-mail.

Improved safety isn't the only benefit researchers expect to see from the asphalt.

It's also supposed to reduce tire noise on roads, Salmon said, so noise level changes will also be tested over several months.

And if all does go well with the experiment here, VDOT said it will consider resurfacing other "high-priority" roads, possibly even one of the main sources of stress for commuters in the Washington metropolitan area: I-66 inside the Beltway.

Staff writer Elisa Glushefski can be reached at 703-878-8062.