Boral Limited, a leading construction materials company in Australia, is delivering over 2,000 tonnes of sustainable pavement material to the country’s largest crumbed rubber asphalt demonstration project.
Launched by the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, the Reusing Rubber: Recycling Tyres for Roads demonstration project aims to make council roads more sustainable while creating a local market for end-of-life car and truck tyres by incorporating crumb rubber in bitumen.
Crumbed rubber asphalt is made of recycled rubber from the tyres of old cars and trucks. The material is intended to improve the sustainability and longevity of council roads.
In addition to the pavement material, Boral is also delivering 1,200 tonnes of controlled asphalt mix, which will be paved across eight local Sydney council streets.
The company is partnering with eight of the 12 involved local councils in Sydney to pave a street in each area and explore varying levels of crumb rubber in a range of asphalt mixes. The councils are namely Bayside Council, Burwood Council, City of Sydney Council, Woollahra Council, Randwick City Council, Sutherland Shire Council, Northern Beaches Council, and Inner-west City Council.
Over an initial 12-month period, the company will monitor the performance of each asphalt mix across a range of applications and conditions to measure product benefits.
This portion of the project will generate comprehensive data on the use of recycled rubber-based treatments on local roads, which will contribute to the development of crumb rubber asphalt specifications in future projects.
Boral began laying pavement in June. The remaining works across the councils are slated to be completed within the coming weeks.
“We are pleased to be working with local governments as they innovate and move towards a circular economy to drive sustainability. This is a huge-scale project that will drive benefits for the broader industry and governments of all levels as we look to better understand how recycled rubber asphalt can be tweaked for maximum performance,” said Tim Richards, executive general manager for Asphalt at Boral.
