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TxDOT will also allow contractors using Pave-IR on a project to work when the ambient temperature drops as low as 32° F., as long as they can show there is no segregation. Normally, TxDOT will not let contractors pave when the ambient temperature drops below about 50° to 60°, Rand says.

“Being able to pave at lower temperatures could add a month or more to our paving season,” says David Morton, quality control manager for APAC-Texas Inc.’s Dallas office.

System grew from TxDOT request The idea for the Pave-IR system started in the late 1990s, when TxDOT needed a better way to identify segregation in asphalt paving and presented that challenge to the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University.

“The traditional way of identifying segregation in asphalt was looking at the pavement’s surface texture,” says TTI associate transportation researcher Stephen Sebesta. “It was subjective.”

Sebesta says that after a researcher in Washington state showed that thermal imaging could show segregation, TTI began developing a system based on thermal measurement.

TTI’s early work planted Sebesta and an infrared camera in the bed of a pickup truck that would drive beside the paving train. Sebesta took heat-sensing photos of the newly laid asphalt, each covering about 20 ft, then manually recorded the time and location of each shot. To get a continuous view he had to stitch the individual photos together electronically on a computer.

After a few years of research and experimentation, as well as the availability of smaller, more economical infrared sensors, TTI developed a system for monitoring asphalt paving that could cover an entire lane and record paving performance continuously all day long.

TTI’s research, development and testing yielded the system that has become Pave-IR, but TxDOT and TTI needed a manufacturer that could produce, sell and support it as a commercial product.

That’s when paver-control expert MOBA Corp. joined the team and developed Pave-IR into a viable product. Part of the commercialization included developing the Pave Project Manager software that helps build custom reports, display temperature graphs and charts and analyze paving project results.

Joey Farrell of Jobsite Technologies LLC, a Pave-IR dealer headquartered in Atlanta, says the system lists for $23,500, plus installation and a week of training.

System boosts efficiency As useful as Pave-IR is for documenting paving quality, many contractors say the system’s ability to help them analyze operations and improve efficiency is even more valuable.

Paving experts say that a high-quality result depends on keeping the paver moving continuously at a smooth and steady pace. Pave-IR shows when the paver moves, how fast it moves, how far it has traveled, where it stops and for how long. “Pave-IR information tells you how well your plant operator, trucking provider, paver operator and ground man are working together,” says Farrell.

APAC’s Morton says, “the industry has needed this for a long time.” He says the Pave-IR should be looked at as a tool for training and improving operations. “It makes everyone concentrate more closely on what they’re doing,” he adds.

Last fall, APAC used Pave-IR on several jobs. During the winter, the company used the Pave-IR data and graphics to show workers from its production plant, delivery trucks and paving crews how their individual actions can make the overall paving result better or worse. “Now they embrace it,” Morton says. “We all want to do the best job we can.”

Robbie Roberts, a quality-control manager for Big Creek Construction near Waco, agrees. “The Pave-IR tells you how well the mix is coming to the site and whether you’re working the paver at a steady pace,” Roberts says. “It helps the foreman fine tune the paver’s speed to match production from the plant as well as the truck-hauling rate so the paver works continuously, and the results are available for everyone in the company to review.”

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