The demand is increasing for high quality aggregate material. Quality aggregate sources are starting to diminish and transportation costs are significant. Coarse aggregate specifications for pavement mixtures for many states are outdated, and do not reflect the current level of knowledge. There is a need to evaluate aggregate quality based on the suitability of property-based testing requirements. A better understanding of testing requirements can lead to a better utilization of local aggregate materials and reduce the reliance on diminishing high quality sources. This study investigates what property-based testing requirements have been established in current specifications, and new areas of testing that need to be developed. A survey of professionals defined a set of testing requirements for different pavement applications, which were then compared to the current testing requirements. The results concluded that gaps exist between how professionals define quality aggregate and how current specifications define it. This creates the need for the inclusion of more property-based testing that could better characterize aggregates based on pavement performance.

To evaluate compliance and consistency, testing data from local sources in the state of Minnesota were compared to regional and national records on aggregate quality and specification requirements. Percent within limit calculations were conducted to evaluate the aggregate property compliance with current quality. The results demonstrated that aggregates complied current specifications. However, there was noticeable variability of test results between different sources though quality requirements were easily met by tolerance criteria. This study emphasizes the inconsistency of aggregate properties among sources subjected to the same (or similar) specification requirements.