Asphalt Pavement Industry Survey on Recycled Materials and Warm-Mix Asphalt Usage: 2018

A shared goal of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) is to support and promote sustainable practices, such as the use of recycled materials and warm-mix asphalt (WMA). The use of recycled materials, primarily reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and reclaimed asphalt shingles (RAS), in asphalt pavements conserves raw materials and reduces overall asphalt mixture costs, as well as reduces the stream of material going into landfills. WMA technologies have been introduced to reduce production and compaction temperatures for asphalt mixtures, which reduces the energy needed and emissions associated with mixture production. Additional benefits include improved low-temperature compaction of asphalt mixtures leading to improved pavement performance, as well as a longer paving season. WMA was chosen for accelerated deployment in federal-aid highway, state department of transportation, and local road projects as part of FHWA’s 2010 Every Day Counts initiative. The objective of this survey, first conducted for the 2009 and 2010 construction seasons, is to quantify recycled materials used and WMA produced annually by the asphalt pavement industry to document the deployment of these technologies to understand where they are being used and where they are underutilized. Results show significant growth in the use of RAP, RAS, and WMA technologies since 2009, although the rate of year-over-year growth has generally slowed since 2013. The asphalt industry remains the country’s most diligent recycler with more than 99 percent of reclaimed asphalt pavement being put back to use. The average percentage of RAP used in asphalt mixtures has increased from 15.6 percent in 2009 to 21.1 percent in 2018. In 2018, the estimated RAP tonnage used in asphalt mixtures was 82.2 million tons. This represents more than 4.1 million tons (23 million barrels) of asphalt binder conserved, along with the replacement of more than 78 million tons of virgin aggregate. Similarly, the use of RAS in asphalt pavement mixtures has increased from 701,000 tons in 2009 to an estimated 1,053,000 tons in 2018 with the use of RAS increasing (11.6 percent) from 2017 to 2018. The combined savings of asphalt binder and aggregate from using RAP and RAS in asphalt mixtures is estimated at more than $2.9 billion and some 62 million cubic yards of landfill space. More than 1.8 million tons of other recycled materials were reported as being incorporated into nearly 12.3 million tons of asphalt pavement mixtures during the 2018 construction season, including recycled tire rubber, blast furnace slag, steel slag, and cellulose fibers. The estimated total production of asphalt with WMA technologies during the 2018 construction season was 157.7 million tons more than half of which was produced at reduced temperatures. This was a 7 percent increase from the estimated 147.4 million tons of WMA in 2017, due to increased utilization reported for Other Agency sector tonnage for the year. Utilization of WMA technologies in 2018 was 839 percent more than the estimated 16.8 million tons in the 2009 construction season. Asphalt produced with WMA technology made up 40.5 percent of the total estimated asphalt mixture market in 2018. Production plant foaming, representing nearly 63 percent of the market, is the most commonly used warm-mix technology; chemical additive technologies accounted for a little more than 34 percent of the market. Relatively minor differences were seen in which WMA technologies were used when production temperatures were or were not reduced.

• Record URL:
  http://www.asphaltpavement.org/PDFs/IS138/IS138-2018_RAP-RAS-WMA_Survey_Final.pdf
• Record URL:
  http://doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.22077.61920
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA)

  Greenbelt, MD  United States 

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of Preconstruction, Construction, and Pavements
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Williams, Brett A
  • Willis, J Richard
  • Ross, T Carter
• Publication Date: 2019-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: 9th Edition Final Report
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 46p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asphalt mixtures; Implementation; Production; Reclaimed asphalt pavements; Recycled materials; Savings; Shingles; Surveys; Trend (Statistics); Warm mix paving mixtures
• Subject Areas: Highways; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01719341
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: IS 138 (9e)
• Contract Numbers: HIF180043PR
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 15 2019 5:06PM