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    SAMI I-Brid at East Kimberley Airport: pavement performance notes for designers

    June 2, 2026|

    Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

    SAMI I-Brid at East Kimberley Airport: pavement performance notes for designers

    First reported on Roads & Infrastructure (AU)

    30 Second Briefing

    SAMI’s I-Brid asphalt has been installed at East Kimberley Regional Airport in Kununurra, Western Australia, as a high-stress runway and taxiway surfacing designed for heavy aircraft loading and braking. The hybrid mix combines polymer-modified binder with a stone mastic-type aggregate skeleton to resist rutting, shear and fuel spillage, targeting longer life and fewer maintenance closures on a remote regional asset. For airport and heavy-duty pavement designers, the trial signals growing interest in high-modulus, deformation-resistant mixes for critical airside pavements.

    Technical Brief

    • I-Brid uses a polymer-modified binder integrated within a stone mastic asphalt (SMA) aggregate skeleton.
    • Mix design targets high stiffness modulus to limit elastic deflection under repeated heavy wheel loads.
    • Binder modification is tuned to resist softening from high pavement temperatures typical of East Kimberley.
    • SMA-type stone-on-stone contact provides shear resistance at aircraft braking zones and turning nodes.
    • Fuel and hydraulic fluid resistance is engineered at binder level to minimise softening and ravelling.
    • Hybrid gradation aims to reduce air voids, limiting moisture ingress and stripping in tropical wet seasons.

    Our Take

    SAMI’s recent Darwin bitumen hub development in northern Australia suggests the East Kimberley Regional Airport work is part of a deliberate push to strengthen pavement supply and performance across remote northern corridors, reducing logistics risk for regional airports.

    Across our infrastructure coverage, SAMI Bitumen Technologies has been positioning itself at the higher‑performance end of the market (technical centre, AfPA conference technologies, SAMIGreen trials), so the Kununurra application likely serves as a live reference site for its newer binder or surface systems in hot, high‑UV conditions.

    With 838 Infrastructure stories in our database, relatively few focus on regional airports in Western Australia, so the East Kimberley Regional Airport project stands out as an example of advanced surfacing products being trialled first in smaller, climate‑challenged facilities rather than on capital‑city runways.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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