ChemCo Systems Epoxy Asphalt is a highly fatigue resistant, extremely durable pavement primarily used on steel bridge decks. It is thermoset (will not melt), has fatigue resistance up to 4 orders of magnitude better than other asphalt pavements, is applied with standard asphalt paving equipment, is impermeable to salts and water, will not rut or shove and has lasted up to 49 years on heavily trafficked bridges.
Epoxy Asphalt’s most common applications are: 1) as a thin overlay, lightweight wear course for repair, replacement or new construction and 2) as a paving surface for orthotropic steel decks where toughness and elastic composite behavior are critical. Several bridges have used Epoxy Asphalt chip seals as temporary wear surfaces during bridge deck replacements occurring while the bridge was kept open for commuting during deck replacement.
A newer use of Epoxy Asphalt is as an extremely durable binder for open graded permeable pavements, also called OGFC pavements. Several countries use epoxy asphalt modified pavements on their high speed motorways and are active in performing research in epoxy binders. The key benefit in OGFC applications is the non-oxidizing property of the binder which does not embrittle with age like normal asphalt binders.