Old tires get a new lease of life on the open roads
BUILDERS are working to pave a 2.5-kilometer stretch of road with “rubber asphalt” made from used tires in a development area in the southern Beijing — claiming to be the largest application of the recycled material in Asia.
“Rubber asphalt roads are more durable than traditional asphalt roads that need to be repaired after three to five years,” said Wei Jianhuan, director of the infrastructure office for the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area.
In 2013, the area introduced “recycled asphalt” for paving a 600-meter road, which is still in service.
“Over the past six years, over 70 main roads in the area, or more than 2 million square meters of floor space, were paved with rubber asphalt, which used 2.73 million used car tires, replacing 123,000 tons of standard coal and avoiding 307,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, compared with the use of ordinary asphalt,” said Wei.
The application has not only helped tackle the waste treatment of used tires but also improved the service life of roads. Thanks to the pilot, the material has been chosen for paving the runway of the Beijing Daxing International Airport set to open this month and the Yanchong expressway linking Beijing’s suburban district of Yanqing and Chongli District of Zhangjiakou in neighboring Hebei Province.
Hu Jun, general manager of the Beijing Lusheng Asphalt Concrete Company, which supplies the rubber asphalt to the area, said the company cooperates with South Africa-invested Landpac Road Construction Technology Development (Beijing) Co Ltd using environmentally friendly treatment technology to turn used tires into high-quality rubber asphalt.
Its annual capacity has reached 80,000 tons, which consumes 800,000 used tires for paving 800,000 square meters.
The area’s application of rubber asphalt was awarded a global gold medal for environment at the 7th International Rubberized Asphalt Rubber Conference last September in South Africa.
A report by the Inter Traffic Environmental Technology of Beijing Co Ltd said the average daily noise level of paved rubber asphalt roads is 3-4 decibels lower than that of paved asphalt roads.
“The surface of the rubber asphalt consists of collagen, making it more tense and elastic than ordinary asphalt, helping reduce tire noise and improve driving comfort,” said Wei.
(Xinhua)