Krzysztof Btazejowski, a graduate of the Civil Engineering Department of the Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, completed his PhD dissertation at the Kielce Technical University, Poland. Since 1992 he has been working as a research engineer for the Road and Bridge Research Institute in Warsaw, Poland, and then in research departments of various companies that manufacture such products as road binders, aggregates, and concrete. He is also the author of a series of publications on asphalt surfacing. In addition, Dr. Blazejowski remains active in standardization and training. When he is not involved in writing or research, Dr. Blazejowski spends time as a mountain guide.
Due to differences in terminology, chiefly between the United States and European countries, some assumptions were made. The universal term binder was used in the book instead of the U. S. term asphalt cement or the European bitumen. That decision has carried with it a change in the name from a binder course to an intermediate course.
Labeling mixtures according to the SMA 0/D system were used throughout the book where D denotes the nominal maximum particle size in a mixture. In Europe, marking SMA D (without ‘0/’) is grounded in the standard EN 13108-5 and has been in use since 2006. Also, aggregate blends are labeled according to a similar system as d/D where d and D are the lower and upper limits of aggregate fraction, respectively; for example, a coarse aggregate 8/12.5 mm means aggregates with grains of size between sieves 8.0 and 12.5 mm with a permissible amount of oversizes and undersizes.
The abbreviations m/m and v/v refer to ratios by mass and volume, respectively. The abbreviation PMB means polymer modified binder.
