Pavement Material Re-Use and Recycled Materials & Stabilisation Considering Sustainability

Site Geotechnical are an advocate for re-use and the use of recycled products in pavement construction and regularly provide a range of options within our recommendations that consider re-use or sustainable practices for pavement construction such as stabilisation.  Our aim is to minimise the use of natural resources and reuse existing materials wherever possible.

We have extensive experience in the use of stabilisation that enhance and improve existing pavement materials making them even more suitable for re-use.  As stated within Austroads “Stabilisation may be defined as a process by which the intrinsic properties of a pavement material or earthworks materials are altered by the addition of a stabilisation binder or granular material to meet performance expectations in its operating, geological and climatic environment.The use of stabilisation technology for stabilising and recycling materials for pavement construction and maintenance is widely accepted as a cost-effective method of improving long-term performance and reducing whole-of-life costs of modern, heavily-trafficked pavements.”

The use of recycled materials can vary from rehabilitation of existing pavement to using suitably salvaged materials within a new pavement construction.  There are three main categories of materials to be used in pavement recycling which are:

• Recycling of flexible pavements(sometimes known as Recycled Asphalt Pavement – RAP),
• Recycling of rigid pavement (sometimes known as Recycled Crushed Concrete)and
• Recycling of solid waste materials like glass, fly ash, plastic and steel slag.