Rubber Asphalt Cost and Analysis
Crumb Rubber Asphalt Cost & Analysis comprises a series of activities, such as materials production, construction, maintenance etc., all of which have environmental impacts. Rubber asphalt is not new but just starting to resurface throughout the US. It is produced from grinding up whole scrap tires from automobiles. Then the use of the ground tiers mixed with Elastiko™ is mixed with the asphalt and then laid.
People who manage roads, especially publicly funded ones, are having to do more with less given their budget restraints. That’s where rubber asphalt cost comes to the rescue. Everyone knows that ECR modified asphalt is less expensive to produce than polymer modified mixes. This reduced expense is passed along to road managers through lower bids, thus allowing limited resources to be spread out even further. Also, not only do road owners get better roads, but they get better roads at a better price. Road owners realize: lower bid costs and better roads.
ECR Benefits
• ECR reduces the cost of a two grade bump: by $2-$4 per mix ton
• ECR makes your plant run faster compared to polymer modified mixes: lower mix viscosities permit 10-15% faster plant throughput
• ECR generates less waste: mixes leave the truck with almost no residue in the bed, reducing truck cleanout waste
• ECR can extend your paving season: ECR mixes can allow paving and compaction in colder temperatures
• ECR allows more efficient compaction: ECR mixes typically require 10-20% fewer roller passes to achieve compliant compaction
• ECR pavements work well in thinlay applications: Compared to standard unmodified hot mix asphalt, ECR pavements can achieve greater durability with thinner lifts.
There are many benefits that afford to asphalt plants when they use Elastiko™ ECR instead of polymer as a means of modification. Polymer modified asphalt tends to be sticky and hard to process through a plant’s system. As a result, production rates can be much less than if using ECR to modify your mix. Also, there tends to be no build up in conveyors, silos or other plant equipment when using ECR.
When you add up the benefits, ECR has the ability to significantly reduce rubber asphalt costs. Elastiko™ ECR permits modification at the mix plant instead of the terminal and produces a high quality pavement at a substantially reduced cost. More and more states are starting to see the benefits of rubber in asphalt and recently have been taking on the old technology and mastering the process. With all the tests done and the years of modifying the processes, the benefits are starting to show for themselves.
Rubberized asphalt using Elastiko™ is a rapidly growing alternative to polymer modification. The product has been:
• Successfully used in multiple states across a wide array of climates.
• Applied in a wide range of asphalt mix designs.
• Used on full depth replacement, overlay and thinlay projects.
• Used on light, medium and heavy traffic roads for more than a decade.
• Thoroughly field-tested with multiple millions of tons in service.
The product is substantially less expensive than other forms of asphalt modification. A chemically Engineered Crumb Rubber product called Elastiko ECR is fed into your plant during mix production, just like a fine aggregate. The heated binder reacts with the ECR during mixing, storage and transport. The delivered mix lays and performs like a polymer-modified pavement, but at a fraction of the cost.
