History and Background of Asphalt Binders PowerPoint Presentation - CivilEngineeringBible.com (Download FREE!)

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The first paved roadway in the United States was Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. This pavement was constructed with an asphalt binder product quarried from a naturally occurring “lake” of asphalt on the island of Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela. A second source of this type of asphalt binder product can be found in Bermudez, Venezuela. These products are still used today. In fact, a Trinidad lake asphalt was placed near Mobile, Alabama in July, 1998.

Each lake asphalt has consistent but different amounts of bitumen, inorganic material. Because of these consistent differences, the amount of solvent-insoluble inorganic material is one common method used to identify and specify the lake asphalt source. This solubility test was used in all subsequent asphalt binder specifications throughout the 20th century.