Road Construction Materials and Construction Technologies

An innovative highway industry provides a major market for the use of 'waste’ resources, at the same time minimizing the need for 'natural’ resources. Selected waste streams and industrial by-products, formerly bound for a landfill, are more frequently finding a route into sustainable highway design and maintenance.

 

Asphalt pavements, concrete, base courses, and embankments increasingly have incorporated 'waste’ resources instead of raw materials. Reclaimed concrete and asphalt, scrap tires, plastics, steel slag, roofing shingles, coal fly ash, and composted municipal organic wastes are proven, cost-effective, and high-efficiency materials with broad applicability in roadway construction.

 

Other environmentally sustainable actions beyond mere building materials include right-of-way management, the reuse of organic materials from cleaning and grubbing operations, deconstruction of buildings removed from rights-of-way, and minimal right-of-way footprints.