Rubberized Asphalt History and Benefits
Rubberized Asphalt
Rubberized 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 rubber is mixed with the asphalt and then laid. Being the largest market for ground rubber, rubberized asphalt consumes an estimated 220,000,000 pounds or around 12 million tires annually. (That number is expected to grow) 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.
Rubberized Asphalt History:
- Used as joint sealers, patches and membranes in the late 1930’s
- 1950’s there were studies with the effects of rubber in asphalt
- Started asphalt use in the 1960’s
- 1990’s research was done with a heavy vehicle simulator to test durability
- Used for chip seals, inter-layers, and asphalt laying
- Used extensively in California, Arizona, Florida and Texas
- Many more states have adopted this process
- Started seeing a rise in use the last 10 years
Rubberized Asphalt Benefits
With the growing support of rubberized asphalt, more states are starting to adopt this process. With all the tests done and the years of modifying the processes, the benefits are starting to show for themselves. There are many benefits that afford to asphalt plants when they use 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.
• 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.
Asphalt Plus LLC
With transportation rising and roads becoming more expensive and common to reconstruct, the industry is constantly looking for cost effective way to innovate. One of those ways is using rubberized asphalt. It has many extreme benefits but most of all is the reduction of maintenance having to be done which brings down the cost of a roads life cycle. With many years of experience and many projects under our belt, Asphalt Plus has your answer to road improvements and getting the most out of our roads.