IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF ADDING COCONUT COIR ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP LAYER OF PURE NATURAL BUTON ASPHALT CONCRETE WEARING COURSE (AC-WC).

Buton Asphalt is natural asphalt originating from Buton Island (Indonesia), with the potential deposit amount reaching up to 662 million tons. This substantial domestic mining potential must be utilized for domestic road needs and to boost the country's economy. However, Buton asphalt's utilization is minimal compared with imported oil asphalt, which reached a usage rate of up to 94 % in 2022. Therefore, as a form of a solution-oriented policy, Buton asphalt is included as one of the 21 commodities in the Strategic Roadmap for Downstream Investment in Indonesia, followed by various supportive regulations for developing this Buton asphalt product. One of the leading products the government targets is natural pure Buton asphalt. This product consists of >99 % bitumen content after extraction, also called Pure Buton Asphalt. The idea was to modify pure Buton asphalt with coconut coir to increase the Marshall Stability and Dynamic Stability values to make the asphalt mixture more resistant to vehicle loads and rutting. The tests were conducted to determine the optimum asphalt content (OAC) of the mixtures, Marshall's Stability comparison, and the dynamic stability test using a Wheel Tracking Machine to identify the comparison of permanent deformation. This study analyzed the Marshall characteristics and dynamic stability characteristics with variations in coconut coir content of 0.5 %, 0.75 %, and 1 % by weight of asphalt and variations in coconut coir length of 0.5 cm, 1 cm, and 1.5 cm. Based on the results of this study, the optimum asphalt content in this study is 6.76 %, where pure Buton Asphalt modified with coconut coir has an increase in Marshall's stability value and dynamic stability value compared to pure Buton asphalt without additional coconut coir [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]