According to ASCE, 40% of American roads are in poor or in mediocre conditions (ASCE 2021). Rutting, which is permanent deformation caused by high traffic loading, heavily contributes to problems with American roads. The Ideal Rut Test (Ideal RT) can be used as part of the Balance Mix Design (BMD) process to assess the rutting resistance of a mix design. This study evaluates the rutting resistance of a Jackson County fiber-reinforced asphalt mix design using the Ideal RT. Ten control and ten fiber samples were prepared to meet the mix design requirements of Jackson County’s mix design and the specifications of the Ideal RT, meaning that the aggregate mass, sample height, and air content were adjusted. The results of the Ideal RT indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the control and fiber samples for RTIndex. Despite the lack of statistically significant evidence to suggest improvement, the fiber samples experienced a higher variance, which may be an indication of the variability incurred during the fiber mixing processes using the fiber layering method. The RTIndex results were compared simply with results from an Asphalt Pavement Analyzer test that involved a set of control and fiber samples. The APA results revealed that the fiber samples did not experience an increased resistance to rutting which were comparably similar to the Ideal RT. The results of this study can be used to further investigate the usefulness of the Ideal RT, and the methodology of this section can be used to further evaluate the effectiveness of the fiber layering method.
