Recycling concrete pavements has been a common practice in most states for many years, dating back to at least the 1940s with the reconstruction of US Route 66 in Illinois, when the existing pavement was recycled back into the new project. It is with renewed interest that public agencies are now more closely examining the opportunities for recycling concrete pavements.
One reason for considering recycling is the diminishing quantity of good natural materials. However, many states still have specification or policy restrictions that do not allow recycled pavements to be utilized to the extent that is possible. In addition, the contracting industry may overlook opportunities to use recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) on projects due to a lack of familiarity with the technical requirements or an uncertainty of how RCAs will perform for a specific application.
A two-part benchmarking survey was conducted in 2016 to gather insights on the current national practice of recycling concrete pavements. The goal of this initial survey was to gather information from both state highway agencies (SHAs) and paving contractors to increase the amount of concrete pavement recycling by:
- obtaining a holistic perspective on current applications
- obtaining the real barriers
- obtaining the perceived barriers
- learning existing opportunities
The survey was conducted by the National Concrete Pavement Technology (CP Tech) Center in cooperation with the state highway agency (SHA) members of the National Concrete Consortium (NCC) and the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA). This information will be updated with a biannual survey to track the use of RCA in paving applications on a state-by-state basis.
This report summarizes the results of this survey and the conclusions reached. While the survey itself was not funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the results have helped guide the work on technology transfer under one of their cooperative agreements. The results have been made fully available to support the FHWA’s goals of supporting more sustainable pavement technical solutions.
Learning/training and technical resources related to the survey and results of the report, “Recycled Concrete Aggregate Usage in the US”:
Webinar Series
- Introduction to Concrete Pavement Recycling
- Construction Considerations in Concrete Pavement Recycling
- Environmental Considerations in Concrete Pavement Recycling
- Case Studies in Concrete Pavement Recycling
Tech Briefs
- CP Road Map: Concrete Pavement Recycling and the Use of Recycled Concrete Aggregate in Concrete Paving Mixtures
- Concrete Pavement Recycling Series: Quantifying the Sustainability Benefits of Concrete Pavement Recycling
- CP Road Map: Concrete Pavement Recycling—Project Selection and Scoping
- Concrete Pavement Recycling Series: Protecting Water Quality through Panning and Design
- Considerations
- Concrete Pavement Recycling Series: Protecting the Environment during Construction
- Additional RCA tech briefs may be developed as deemed appropriate under the cooperative agreement
Manual of Practice
- Recycling Concrete Pavement Materials: A Practitioner’s Reference Guide (in press/forthcoming)
These products, along with other technical resources, are available for free download from the National CP Tech Center’s website: http://www.cptechcenter.org/concrete-recycling/.
For the PDF of the full report, please click on the image above, or go to: http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/RCA_US_usage_summary_w_cvr.pdf