The environmentally-positive alternative for semi-permanent unpaved roads, from the leading innovators in soil stabilization.
- Natural colorations
- Fast turnaround
- Long-term wear course
- Minimal intrusion
- Easy to maintain
- Cold-applied
- Use of local materials
- Long installation season
- Cost savings
- Skid-resistance
Economical, purposeful, long lasting and aesthetically pleasing roads.
As the industry’s soil stabilization technology leader, Midwest is driven to deliver superior performance while protecting the natural environment. This is Midwest’s “Third Way,” representing significant improvements over old-fashioned asphalt or gravel alternatives. We construct secondary, unpaved roads that perform like paved roads, yet cost less and can last longer.
Learn more about the advantages of a NaturalPave road by downloading or viewing the full collection of soil stabilization techniques above — including test data, case histories and testimonials, construction and completed project photos and videos.
The Senegal Ministry of Transportation needed a new alternative paving method that could strengthen its village roads, which are crucial to the transport of food, livestock, supplies and services. NaturalPave provided a more stable, safe and visually pleasing surface, revitalizing a road network for improved quality of life and upgraded infrastructure to better connect remote citizens to one another and to major urban centers of commerce.
An event center for rodeo and charity events had unpaved entrance roads that would send huge clouds of dust and debris airborne whenever they experienced traffic. Midwest completely transformed its roadways, eliminated the dust and replaced rutted roads with pristine and beautiful-looking surfaces.
A California-based power company owns power lines that run through beach dunes, requiring regular cannon washing to clear dust and debris. NaturalPave technology stabilized the roadway for maintenance vehicle access to its power lines, without violating any of the strict regulations that protect the dunes. This provided long-term protection against erosion, and allowed stable access, with little to no impact on the surrounding environment. The road also experiences zero ATV traffic because it was designed to blend naturally with the surrounding dunes, rather than welcome or encourage passersby to use it as an access route to the protected area.
Steel mill haul roads are worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and need to accommodate 150-ton slab haulers. Major problems with dust and rough potholed roads, along with high equipment maintenance and labor costs, necessitated daily grading and continuous watering. Midwest’s soil stabilization techniques eliminated dust and potholes, dramatically reduced grading and stopped water applications. The haul road was smooth, contributing to productivity, while good drainage was maintained and hazardous driving conditions were eliminated.
Controlling dust on military operational areas causes unique challenges, especially those which require intense use-site stabilization. In one example, Midwest was able to markedly increase safety at helipads. When helicopters operate in dusty environments, their rotary blades and engines must be replaced after only one-third to one-half of their normal life, due to the erosion of surfaces caused by airborne soil particles. Midwest NaturalPave provided effective dust control for periods ranging from 90 days to 12 months before retreatment was necessary — even at Blackhawk military helipads experiencing extreme conditions such as temperate or desert climate, wind blasts in excess of 100 mph and surface temperatures of 120˚F.
In another instance, at the Twentynine Palms USMC military base in California, Midwest NaturalPave SoilPaving System actually improved stiffness and strength on an 8-mile stretch of heavily used roadway compared to conventional asphalt chip seal. The program delivered greater structural integrity that allowed for an increase in roadway loading capacity and superior traction — all while using native, in-place soils and green, sustainable components to save considerable construction costs, while reducing dust control and ongoing maintenance from $1,000,000 annually to $250,000 in the first year alone.
The old ways cost more in equipment, personnel and material. Compare what it takes to build only one mile to doing so with the “Third Way.”
- Grader
- Roller
- Dump Trucks with Gravel
- Water Trucks
- Batch Plant
- Earthmovers
- Paver
- Asphalt Trucks
- XX People
- Grader
- Roller
- Tractor with Tiller
- Spray Truck
- 5 People
That’s just a single mile. Think about the sheer magnitude of materials, equipment, time and manpower for every mile of road stabilization you need. With conventional, old methods it becomes a rough road of money lost when compared to Midwest’s “Third Way” — the new way of NaturalPave that utilizes native or in-place soils to save money and effort associated with hauling non-native materials.
THE ADVANTAGES ARE AS STRONG AS THE ROAD SURFACE ITSELF
More strength and longevity, for less than conventional methods. The “Third Way” from Midwest increases loading capacity and structural integrity while reducing harmful moisture penetration. New roadbuilding chemistry in NaturalPave offers advanced performance and significant cost savings over ordinary, old-fashioned methods.
SOIL SEMENT EF
A polymer emulsion formulated using nanotechnology to make roads as hard as steel or resilient as rubber.
One family of proven soil stabilization solutions; so many benefits for so many uses. Midwest’s NaturalPave Soil-Sement Engineered Formula® creates smooth, hard, dust-free surfaces that eliminate potholes and greatly reduce the need for regular grading and ongoing water maintenance.
Get a paved-like appearance that can accommodate chip seal, applied to a NaturalPave Soil-Sement stabilized subgrade, for a durable, long-term and low maintenance surface. The name NaturalPave is well chosen, as this engineered formula is ecologically safe and does not leach or wash away.
This Midwest program is extremely versatile, with significant benefits for everything from military training bases and utilities to energy production sites and state parks.
Army helipads | unpaved roads | mining access roads | steel mill haul roads | electric tower foundations | bike trails
ECO-PAVE
A one- or two-stage process to create a stabilized base for unpaved roads, and if desired finish that off with a chip-sealed surface.
If you think main thoroughfares and highways give you a tough ride — what with all the potholes and uneven, compromised surfaces — imagine what secondary, unpaved roads are like. The inconvenient fact is that municipalities, townships and districts can’t afford to pave all road surfaces. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), 71% of public access roads in the U.S. are in rural areas. 45% of these roads are unpaved. That’s a lot of roads traveled every day with ordinary transportation and heavy industrial vehicles, without a lot of money to take care of them.
The people living in these areas, who have to ride to work and school and stores on these unpaved roads, aren’t secondary people of course. Yet they have to deal with access on second-rate roads that are little more than dusty, unreliable loose surfaces that experience constant degradation and minimal maintenance.
NaturalPave Eco-Pave® and Eco-Pave Chip® comprise Midwest’s family of products to improve the lives of those who use secondary roads.
Unpaved roads can now become like paved roads. Midwest created the NaturalPave Eco-Pave system to build, stabilize and maintain unpaved secondary roads. You can use one stage or enhance with both, as NaturalPave Eco-Pave provides a stabilized base and NaturalPave Eco-Pave Chip adds an environmentally-safe chip-sealed surface.
First, the NaturalPave Eco-Paves polymer-enhanced, resin-based organic emulsion is blended into existing native soils, gravel roads or recycled roadway surface materials to create a superior sub-base. Using existing, in-place materials instead of imported base or aggregate materials saves time, saves money and saves the natural ecological balance of the treated area. This creates a superior sub-base to produce a natural-looking, high-performance surface.
When desired, the result can be further enhanced by adding a warm, inviting surface by using NaturalPave Eco-Pave Chip, a powerful binder covered with aggregate for a visually-pleasing chip-sealed running surface.
EK35
Pavement-like strength, made to last the natural way.
Midwest NaturalPave EK35® was one of the first Synthetic Organic Dust Control® products on the market. Unique in the industry, this product has a binder system that captures fines and keeps them locked into the surface, preventing fugitive dust from escaping.
Created in our own laboratory by Midwest chemists, NaturalPave EK35 was formulated to serve any application, protect against any conditions, and perform better than ordinary methods (from water to ordinary topical applications) in order to provide you with lasting strength and environmental safety.
NaturalPave EK35 has been synthesized with an advanced binding chemistry for semi-permanent, paved-like performance. Get both lasting strength and environmental safety, featuring a system of naturally-occurring pitch/rosin binders to interlock and durably bind surface aggregate and fines together through both a cohesive mechanism (the internal strength of an adhesive) and an adhesive mechanism (the bonding of an adhesive to a substrate). As fines are generated, they are captured and prevented from escaping as dust.
Furthermore, the resulting pavement-like strength is actually enhanced by traffic (not degraded by it like ordinary methods). The surface resists deformation and provides the required strength for traffic and heavy vehicles.
The superior choice for industrial, construction and municipal applications.
NaturalPave EK35 penetrates dust and remains actively effective on clay, sand, limestone and most native soils, regardless of the weather or how severe the traffic. NaturalPave EK35 also provides longer-lasting performance and retains its performance with fewer applications compared to other dust-control and surface-stabilization methods.
NaturalPave EK35 helps save maintenance costs and manpower. It remains constantly active after installation, allowing the surface to be reworked and remain effective without requiring additional product to be applied.
Efficacy is independently tested and verified, to prove performance and safety. An accumulated 40 years of Midwest research and development has led to the ultimate in dust control and soil stabilization performance, for an impenetrable, durable surface with superior compressive strength. NaturalPave EK35 has earned independent, third-party certifications and verifications for environmental safety and proven technology performance. These validations show the formulations to be safe for people and the environment; effective in suppressing PM10 and PM2.5 levels; as well as successful in realizing fines preservation for surface stability and dust control.
US EPA Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) | Boeing Document D6-17487 (the most stringent corrosion standard in the US) | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission — Dirt and Gravel Road Maintenance Program | Clean Water Act and National Pollution Discharge Elimination System | US EPA (meets the criteria for the term synthetic as established by the for sediment toxicity, biodegradability, PAH content, aquatic toxicity and being oil-sheen free)
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