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Production

Making paving materials: hot mix asphalt in batch and drum plants, and portland cement concrete mixed at a central plant, in the truck or both.

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  • Asphalt plants

    • HMA Manufacturing

      HMA is produced in a plant that proportions, blends, and heats aggregate and asphalt to produce an HMA that conforming to job mix formula (JMF) requirements.

    • HMA Plant Operations

      HMA production is the first step in construction.

    • HMA Batch Plant

      Batch plants, which produce HMA in individual batches, are the older of the two types of HMA production facilities.

    • HMA Drum Plant

      Drum plants, which produce HMA in a continuous manner, generally offer higher production rates than batch plants for comparable cost.

    • Segregation & Temperature Differentials

      Segregation and temperature differentials are construction-related HMA pavement problems that can lead to early pavement failure.

  • Concrete plants

    • Cement Production

      An example operation of cement production is taken from Lafarge Seattle. Below Figures 1 and 2 show the relation of the Lafarge plant to Downtown Seattle and 3D imagery of the Lafarge plant respectively.

    • PCC Plant Operations

      All PCC intended for pavement use is ready-mixed concrete. Ready-mixed concrete refers to PCC that is delivered to the customer in a freshly mixed and unhardened state (NRMCA, 2002).

    • Central Mixed PCC

      Central mixed PCC is usually proportioned by batching the separate ingredients into a central plant mixer (see Figures 1 through 4) where they are completely mixed before discharge into a transport vehicle.

    • Shrink Mixed PCC

      Shrink mixed PCC is partially mixed in a plant mixer before discharging into a truck mixer.

    • Truck Mixed PCC

      Truck mixed PCC is usually proportioned by batching the separate ingredients directly into the concrete mixing truck. The ingredients are usually charged in a certain order to ensure good mixing of all ingredients.