In October 2022, Northeast Asphalt (NEA), a Walbec Group Company, successfully repaved the infamous Road America raceway. Located in the rolling hills of the Kettle Moraine area, Elkhart Lake’s Road America has been offering high-speed excitement to racing enthusiasts since 1955.
While there are many similarities to paving a traditional roadway, a racetrack offers unique challenges, including more slopes and quicker transitions into super-elevation curves. The curves on a racetrack are much tighter than on conventional roads. Racetracks are also designed to accommodate more lateral loads, such as cars starting and stopping.
As a long-standing partner with Road America, NEA repaved the track in 1994/1995 and replaced the corners in 1999, 2005, and 2015. Walbec has also partnered with Road America on their go-carting track, numerous track maintenance projects, and other paving contracts on the property.
Walbec’s team of experts delivered every service required – from managing the quality of the aggregates, asphalt mix, testing, and paving to the engineering for drainage and pipe work installation. Road America trusted Walbec to deliver this successful repaving project while maintaining the facility’s integrity and historical significance.
Project Details
- Walbec completed various work for this 4.048-mile racetrack, including pipework, grading, surveying and layout, removals, widenings, widening the entrance and exit of the pit lane, repaving the track, and other minor improvements.
- The highly polymerized mix with aggregates sourced from around the State is four inches thick when compacted and was placed in two lifts.
- Due to the specialty asphalt cement required, two different asphalt plants were used to produce the mix, one for the lower layer and a separate plant for the surface layer.
- The mix underwent significant testing in the design and construction phases, including controlling the aggregates, asphalt cement, mix testing, and approvals from various channels to ensure specifications and tolerances were met.
- The crews used various specialty construction techniques to ensure the proper placement, including additional surveying and layout, tandem asphalt pavers, multiple rollers, and transfer machines.
- Two paving crews, two grading crews, a milling crew, and up to 46 trucks on the highest volume day were onsite to achieve daily production goals.
The Road America Repave 2022 was popular with fans, with Road America providing live streaming via three different camera angles. Northeast Asphalt also assisted Road America in providing a limited quantity of asphalt cores for their team to offer fans a piece of the Road America track. This project is a testament to the expertise and collaborative efforts throughout Walbec and our trusted partnership with Road America. The team’s dedication and attention to detail resulted in a high-quality outcome that fans and drivers will enjoy for years.
