New way of doing things
Company using recycling technology to repave highway in Albany
A new piece of technology is at work on Island roads which adheres to the old adage “waste not, want not”.
It’s called a hot mix recycle system and it repaves roads by ripping up the asphalt and reusing it on the spot. A version of the equipment, operated by M and M Resources, of Village Green, near Charlottetown, is currently being used to repave a stretch of Route 1A in Albany.
Stephen Yeo, chief engineer with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, said Thursday that as far as he is aware, the equipment being used by M and M Resources is unique in Canada, though other provinces do use variations on asphalt recycling technology.
So far, he’s quite pleased with the work the new system has been doing.
“It’s interesting to see if you go out there and look at the old asphalt that is weathered and cracked,” said Yeo. “This scrapes it up, rejuvenates it and puts it back down, and it just looks like new asphalt again.”
The hot mix recycling system working in Albany uses three pieces of machinery. The first two are called pre-heaters, and their job is to make the asphalt already on the road pliable by heating it to a depth of about five centimetres. The third machine follows behind and mills
“It’s interesting to see if you go out there and look at the old asphalt that is weathered and cracked. This scrapes it up, rejuvenates it and puts it back down, and it just looks like new asphalt again.” Stephen Yeo
up the asphalt, mixes it with various compounds called rejuvenator and then lays it back down. As in more common road repairs, a roller would come along and compress the new surface.
Yeo said there are some advantages and disadvantages when comparing a hot mix recycling system to a traditional remove-and-replace asphalt road repair situation.
The hot mix method is notably cheaper, partly because it cuts down on having to buy new asphalt. It also cuts down on greenhouse gases by not having to ship asphalt into the province and transport it around to work sites.
However, hot mix tends to produce a road that is not quite as smooth as a traditional repair method would. Also, because the system is recycling whatever is already on the road, the quality of its work is largely dependent on the quality of the asphalt present.
If it is flawed or of low quality, it will affect the finished product.
The system also tends to take a little longer to do its work than more traditional methods.
Yeo said the province has been working with M and M Resources to test hot mix recycling, but at the end of the day, the system will have to prove its ultimate worth in the marketplace.
“There’s certainly potential uses on the Island for it. But at this point in time we’re not saying how much percentage (of our road repairs) we’re going to allow to be done this way. We’re going to try it in various locations and see the results.”