Paving roads is a dirty business. This may not be that surprising since it is actually tar. However, many of the materials used during the paving process are not necessarily environmentally friendly, and given the number of roads in America, there is a major problem.
What if there was a way to replace some of these less than tasty chemicals and ingredients with recycled materials that we already have too much of, such as B. plastics? That's exactly what CalTrans and a company called TechniSoil are doing with a new freeway section outside of Oroville, California.
If TechniSoil sounds familiar, it's probably because we covered its plans Repave a busy intersection in downtown Los Angeles last year with a similar plastic-containing asphalt material. This pilot program was successful enough to enter this new, broader phase.
"We are excited to introduce new sustainable technology and pave the way for the use of recycled plastics across the state," said Amarjeet S. Benipal, director of Caltrans District 3, in a statement on Thursday. "This process is better for the environment because it keeps plastic bottles away from landfills and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels."
Road construction companies have been using reground asphalt as part of the roadbed construction process for some time. This process removes between 3 and 6 inches of the road surface with a large machine that grinds it and mixes it with a bitumen foam. This method is excellent for reusing old asphalt, but is not durable enough to be used as a road surface.
To do this, contractors must bring in traditional hot mix asphalt from a production facility and apply it to the recycled material. This increases the material, labor and transport costs of an already expensive process, not to mention the additional greenhouse gas emissions that arise from the manufacture and transportation of the material to a construction site.
The TechniSoil G5 binding material is different because it completely eliminates the hot mixing step. To do this, the top 3 inches of the roadway are sanded down and then mixed with a liquid polymer binder, which consists primarily of recycled plastic bottles - approximately 150,000 bottles per mile-track. This new recycled mix is durable enough to be used as the top layer of a road surface and promises an even longer lifespan than traditional hot mix asphalt.
2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Offroad: Ready and ready to get dirty
For more of it
Subscribe to the Roadshow newsletter, receive notifications and see related articles on CNET.
"California has set ambitious goals for recycling and other environmental priorities. To achieve them, innovative and cost-effective solutions are required," said California State Senator Ben Hueso in a statement on Thursday. "The use of plastic waste that was otherwise destined for a landfill not only lowers the cost of repairing and building roads, it also increases the strength and durability of our roads. As a leader in environmental justice, California is unique Position to change transportation again by using this new technology that could revolutionize the way we look at recycled plastic. "
So, right, that's probably a lot more than you thought you needed to know about pavement. However, the benefits to the state of California in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from not using hot mix asphalt and the need to move it to construction sites from miles away, as well as the savings from lower maintenance requirements, could prove to be a pretty big deal. We are also interested in seeing how other, colder countries test the TechniSoil process and see if it can work in places like Michigan, where it does notoriously bad roads.
