A few years ago, a city in the Dallas, Texas area had some concrete pavements that were in rough shape. The city was looking for an interim paving solution for these pavements and turned to one of Polyco’s customers, which was using an asphalt binder in their hot mix powered by our SigmaBond concentrate. The pavement lasted well past the city’s expected timeline, proving to be a long-lasting solution to a short-term fix. 

Since the performance of this pavement surpassed expectations, the city’s engineering department wanted to see if it could be repeated on additional roads. In June of 2021, that opportunity presented itself in the form of another four lane road construction project. The main travel lanes of the roadway used the same hot mix designed with the SigmaBond binder, while the turn lanes and crossovers were paved with a standard mix using common grade asphalt. 

Three months later, I revisited the site of the June project and was blown away! The photos below show the apparent color difference between the different pavement sections. Each section of the road used the same hot mix design, however, the sections paved with the SigmaBond binder outperformed the others paved with the standard paving grade asphalt. 

As the photos reveal, asphalt made with a SigmaBond binder stays darker, longer. The darker roads not only look better but also provide a safety enhancement due to the contrast of the striping against the black surface. This hotmix is also more stable, crack resistant and durable because of SigmaBond. 

Seeing this big of a difference in three months’ time is an important reminder that our products are engineered to perform. The proof is in the pictures!