Gilson Insights

Balanced Mix Design: A New Way Forward

<div><a href="/blog/balanced-mix-design-article"><img loading="lazy" src="/Content/Images/uploaded/blog/2023/march/balance-mix-design-blog.jpg" alt="BMD for Asphalt Pavement" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 100%; max-width: 715px;" /> </a></div><p>Balanced Mix Design is a practical and common-sense approach to constructing long-lasting asphalt pavements. The design of asphalt mixes traditionally follows a prescriptive, volumetric path. Materials are selected and combined to meet the requirements of the specification with little evidence of what their real performance will be in a localized application or a certain environment. Researchers and practitioners alike have concluded that just mixing the specified ingredients in the stated volumes is a poor predictor of long-term asphalt pavement performance. As one prominent paving engineer put it, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s stop using the recipe to determine if the cake is good.&rdquo;</p>