Mineral extraction in the Uinta Basin means heavy loads traveling many county roadways. These roads typically experience heavy wear because they were not designed for the loads they experience.

Most of the high-volume heavy truck traffic on Pole Line Road is related to mineral extraction. For many years, the road has been in poor shape and often had potholes that took up an entire travel lane. Duchesne County has been looking for economical ways to resurface this roadway to make it traversable and require less maintenance until the county could afford full reconstruction.

The county worked with Jones & DeMille Engineering and Pacific Geosource to look at a few options. The groups came up with a plan to mill the existing bituminous surface into the existing road base and compact it as the new base layer. Once that was done, they placed three inches of HMA with FORTA-FI fibers to create a reinforced asphalt mat.

FORTA-FI was used to increase the tensile strength of the new asphalt pavement and extend the pavement life while reducing the necessary thickness of asphalt to provide adequate structure for the design traffic. With the innovative use of reinforcing fibers, this project will provide a longer-lasting pavement that will maintain a higher PCI score and reduce future maintenance operations for Duchesne County. This project will ultimately save Duchesne County money and allow the county to reallocate maintenance funds and crews to other county roads.

This project is the first fiber-reinforced roadway specified for Duchesne County. It will be a pilot for using reinforcing fiber on future projects. FORTA-FI should allow Duchesne County to resurface some of these deteriorated roadways wisely and with a product that requires less maintenance during its lifespan.