Recycling machinery cuts highway costs
MOREAU, N.Y. » Highway departments are saving money and paving more road miles with environmentally-friendly machinery that recycles existing material.
The Albany-based Gorman Group’s equipment nicknamed the “Train” did a nearly mile-long stretch of Reservoir Road in Moreau on Wednesday, with plans to tackle Harrison Avenue on Thursday.
The firm has also recently done projects for Saratoga County and the towns of Greenfield and Ballston.
“This is one of the greenest processes there is,”
said Dane Mellon, The Gorman Group spokesman. “It’s very cost-effective. It allows municipalities to treat more lane miles with the same amount of money.”
The technology and process, called cold in-place recycling, has been around since the 1970s. However, The Gorman Group was the first company to use it in the Capital Region, and its practice is still fairly new in some parts of the area.
A large lead vehicle called a miller-planer digs up two to four inches of existing pavement. Material goes up a conveyor and onto a screen deck where large pieces are sorted out. The rest is fed into a second vehicle following close behind, called a mix-paver.
Ground up, recycled pavement is mixed with an oil-based binding agent and comes out the back in a smooth coating of fresh blacktop.
“It’s all computerized so you get the right percentage of emulsion,” Mellon said. “It’s one continuous process. That’s where the name ‘Train’ comes from.”
After rolling, first with a steel and then a rubber-tire roller, pavement is allowed to sit for about 10 days. Then local crews put a final top coating on.
Recycling existing pavement greatly reduces the need for new stone, which saves money and eliminates numerous truck trips. This, of course, cuts fuel costs and reduces harmful emissions.
With fewer trucks on the road, highway safety is also improved.
The Gorman Group has two “Trains” that primarily cover New England and eastern upstate New York, although jobs sometimes take equipment as far south as the Carolinas.
From Moreau, the unit being used locally will be loaded on a flatbed trailer and head to Maine, for paving work there.
“It’s a great pavement preservation tool,” Mellon said.
To save money, highway departments sometimes put a thin top layer of blacktop on roads. But this typically doesn’t last long.
The “Train” rehabilitates roads that need repair without having to do a full reconstruction project.
“This is the third year we’ve used it,” Greenfield Highway Superintendent Walter Barss said. “If you have the right road, where the sub-base isn’t real bad, it works out very good. You’re getting rid of cracks and starting fresh.”
The Gorman Group did six miles of town highway for Greenfield this summer. This was four miles of Locust Grove Road from the Wilton-Greenfield line to Spier Falls Road, and two miles of Brigham Road from Locust Grove Road to Wilton-Gansevoort Road.
“We saved about $150,000, which we put toward doing more roadway,” Barss said. “We probably gained a little over a mile.”
Contracting work out also frees up town employees for other jobs, such as ditching in preparation for future road improvements.
The company did two roads for Saratoga County this summer — County Route 22 (Crescent Avenue) and County Route 45 (Northline Road).
“The county has been using it for more than 15 years,” Public Works Commissioner Keith R. Manz said.
The “Train” method saves about $320,000, or more than 10 percent, of the county’s $3 million road budget, he said.
“The savings are fuel because we’re doing less trucking, and overtime labor as it helps speed up our schedule,” Manz said.