Civil Engineering and Architecture 11(5A): 3242-3248, 2023 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/cea.2023.110833 The Effect of Sugar Palm Fiber Content on the Marshall Performance of Hot Mix Buton-Asphalt Mixture Ludfi Djakfar * , Rahayu Kusumaningrum, Theo Adhitya Kusuma, Abid Hartisah Rahman Department of Civil Engineering, Brawijaya University, Indonesia Received December 30, 2022; Revised March 8, 2023; Accepted July 5, 2023 Cite This Paper in the Following Citation Styles (a): [1] Ludfi Djakfar, Rahayu Kusumaningrum, Theo Adhitya Kusuma, Abid Hartisah Rahman , "The Effect of Sugar Palm Fiber Content on the Marshall Performance of Hot Mix Buton-Asphalt Mixture," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 11, No. 5A, pp. 3242 - 3248, 2023. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2023.110833. (b): Ludfi Djakfar, Rahayu Kusumaningrum, Theo Adhitya Kusuma, Abid Hartisah Rahman (2023). The Effect of Sugar Palm Fiber Content on the Marshall Performance of Hot Mix Buton-Asphalt Mixture. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 11(5A), 3242 - 3248. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2023.110833. Copyright©2023 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract With large natural asphalt deposit sits in its soils, Indonesia should not worry regarding the availability of the pavement material in the near future. However, this natural asphalt, called Buton Asphalt, has some deficiency in terms of its ability to sustain crack. Therefore, it should be modified with material resisted to cracking. One of such materials is palm sugar fiber. The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of adding palm sugar fiber to the hot mix Buton-asphalt mixture based on the Marshall characteristics. The sugar palm fiber was varied at 0.2- 0.4% of the mixture weight at 0.5-1.5cm fiber length. The mixture preparation conformed to the 2018 Bina Marga Specifications. The result showed that the mixture's optimal sugar palm fiber content was 0.2% of the mixture weight with a length of 0.5 cm. Adding sugar palm fiber increased Marshall stability up to 3.11% and Marshall Quotient by 15.56%. VMA and VIM also increased to 7.97% and 33.76%, respectively. The Marshall flow, however, decreased to 13.07%. The result indicates that adding sugar palm fiber to the mixture improved the mixture's performance. Therefore, for future use, it is recommended to add this fiber as the modifier. As for future research, other types of fiber such as coconut fiber should also be investigated for its potential use in Buton Asphalt mix. Keywords Buton Asphalt, Sugar Palm Fiber, VIM, VMA, VFB, Stability, Flow, MQ 1. Introduction Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest natural asphalt deposit in the world, known as Buton Asphalt. The deposit is in the form of asphalt-filled rocks mixed with other mineral materials with bitumen content varying from low to high (10%-30%). It is estimated that about 600 million tons of Buton Asphalt deposits (equivalent to 170 million tons of oil asphalt) reside on Buton Island [1]. However, as of today, the use of Buton Asphalt for road construction is still low. Its performance is usually below those of oil-based asphalt mixture, limiting its use only for low-volume roads. Despite these limitations, several studies have shown the advantages of Buton Asphalt. Several road pavement trials in Indonesia that used Buton Asphalt and oil asphalt showed an increase in compressive strength and modulus of elasticity of the mixture compared to those without Buton Asphalt [2]. Hadiwardoyo [3] suggested that adding Buton asphalt to the concrete asphalt mixture could change the penetration index of the mix, resulting in a higher slip resistance value. However, adding Buton asphalt may decrease adhesiveness (cohesiveness), making it more brittle and less elastic than pure oil-based asphalt [4]. The challenges and opportunities of using Buton Asphalt in pavement construction should be reviewed to find methods to address the limitation. As discussed previously, the main problem with Buton asphalt is the crack problem that may occur during its earlier time of service. If the