THE POTENTIAL USE OF TAR SAND BITUMEN AS PAVING ASPHALT

THE POTENTIAL USE OF TAR SAND BITUMEN AS PAVING ASPHALT J. Claine Petersen Distinguished Scientist Western Research Institute larami e • Wyomi ng . INTRODUCTION The amount of asphalt used annually is about 30 million tons of which about 24 million tons is used in paving. Thus, the potential exi sts for util i zati on of si gnifi cant amounts of tar sand bi tumen in paving if the bitumen were commercially available and if the properties of tar sand asphalts were suitable for paving use. The commerci a 1 application of tar sand bitumen as a paving material has been limited to the direct use of the tar sand as a surfacing material. Tar sands from the Asphalt deposit are quarried and blended with dry sand to pave county roads, parking lots, and driveways. Petroleum asphalt is added to limestone tar sands from the Uvalde, Texas, deposit to prepare a pa vi ng materi a 1. Through the 1930' s, crushed tar sand from the Santa Rosa, New Mexico, deposits were used to pave roads, streets, and airport runways as far away as Seattle, Washington; and during the 1940's tar sands from deposits in Utah, California, and Kentucky were quarried for application as paving materials. The tar sands as obtained from quarri es, however, do not meet exi sti ng specifi cati ons as a hi ghway construction material. In thi s paper, several past studi es (l-.!) desi gned to evaluate recovered tar sand bitumen as a pavi ng materi a 1 are revi ewed and the Prepared for presentati on at the 1987 Summer Meeti ng of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, June 22-24, 1987. 1 2,5,'2:-

THE POTENTIAL USE OF TAR SAND BITUMEN AS PAVING ASPHALT

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