Scott Nazar and Marty Doody from HAPI member Forta Corporation visited Hawaii during the week of November 3rd. Scott is Forta’s Technical Manager for Fiber Reinforcement for Asphalt, and Marty is their the company’s Director of Sales and Marketing.
HAPI’s Executive Director Jon Young scheduled and accompanied the Forta representatives to several meetings, along with their local representative, Kimo Scott, from OK Hardware & Construction Supply, Inc. They had the opportunity to meet with HAPI members Grace Pacific, Jas. W. Glover, and Road and Highway Builders, as well as staff from the State’s Department of Transportation – Harbors Division and staff from the City’s Departments of Design and Construction, and Planning and Permitting.
Kimo arranged a visit to the College of Engineering asphalt lab in Holmes Hall on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa where they met with Associate Professor Ricardo Archilla. The professor gave the group a tour of the lab and reviewed the status of his research on the use of Forta-Fi fibers in asphalt pavements.
The highlight of the visit was a workshop Forta presented on the use of their fibers in asphalt pavement on November 5th at the Honolulu International Airport Conference Center, which was organized by OK Hardware & Construction Supply, Inc.
Scott’s presentation covered an overview/history of the Forta Corporation, pavement distress issues in Hawaii, the purpose of the various pavement layers, and an in-depth explanation of Forta-Fi fibers for pavements. He also discussed where the fibers have been used in Hawaii, which was reported in the June 2014 HAPI Newsletter.
Ricardo followed with a presentation of his on-going research. He discussed local hot mix asphalt (HMA) performance testing, presenting historical and preliminary current results. He reported that their previous studies show the benefit of using Forta-Fi fibers and/or polymer modified asphalt to resist permanent deformation in HMA.
The workshop ended with a lively question and answer session.
Below are photos from the November 5th workshop:
