Materials Recycling and Reuse - Finding Opportunities in Colorado Highways

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) secured a Resource Conservation Grant provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to determine a strategy to improve recycling on highway projects and reduce waste in landfills. The project focused primarily on five high-tonnage materials: asphalt, concrete, metal, wood, and tires. These materials can be reused, recycled, and replaced on highway projects in cost-effective ways. Recommendations include: Increase the percent of recycled asphalt pavement allowed in highway asphalt pavement projects from 15% to 30%; Use crushed concrete for more project applications; Replace wood products with more recycle-friendly products such as steel and plastic; Replace raw materials with steel products made from recycled steel; Increase use of rubber tire products in engineering applications; Modify construction specifications and improve tracking to both increase and measure efforts; and Present findings to engineers and DOT designers responsible for materials selection in project design. Implementation activities include the following: Educate engineers and contractors about opportunities for replacing conventional highway materials with recycled materials; Remove recycling barriers inherent to current highway design plans; Revise construction specification language to encourage contractors to reuse and recycle; Improve tracking of reused and recycled material, starting with a baseline to compare future efforts; and Share research and recommendations from this project with CDOT staff, corporations, other government agencies, and the environmental community through an outreach program.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.codot.gov/programs/research/pdfs/2007/epagrant.pdf/
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Felsburg Holt & Ullevig

  6300 South Syracuse Way, Suite 600
  Centennial, CO  United States  80111

  Colorado Department of Transportation

  Research Branch
  Denver, CO  United States  80204

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Environmental Protection Agency

  1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20460
• Authors:
  • Stevens, Michelle
• Publication Date: 2007-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 180p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asphalt; Cost effectiveness; Implementation; Metals; Plastics; Recycled materials; Recycling; Road construction; Steel; Wood
• Uncontrolled Terms: Crushed concrete; Recycled concrete; Scrap tires
• Geographic Terms: Colorado
• Subject Areas: Construction; Geotechnology; Highways; Materials; Research; I31: Bituminous Binders and Materials; I32: Concrete; I34: Steels and Metals; I35: Miscellaneous Materials; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01080531
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: CDOT-2007-12
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Nov 8 2007 11:18AM