Kentucky Grants Target Rubberized Asphalt Projects

Grant funding will be made available for the application of chip seal utilizing rubber-modified asphalt on roads across the Commonwealth, Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Charles G. Snavely announced last month.

Chip seal is a pavement surface treatment that combines a layer of asphalt with a layer of aggregate and reduces long-term maintenance costs. The Cabinet expects to fund as many as four projects.

The rubber for the modified asphalt is derived from processing scrap tires. The cabinet expects that this will be another successful outlet for recycled tires in Kentucky and will reduce the problem of illegal tire dumping.

The money for these projects comes from the Kentucky Waste Tire Trust Fund, which gets $1 from every new tire sold in the Commonwealth. In addition to providing funding for the development of markets for recycled waste tires, the fund also provides monies for waste tire collection events, tire pile clean-ups, and grants for counties to manage waste tires.

The Cabinet will be performing short-term and long-term testing to assess the effectiveness of rubber-modified asphalt in Kentucky. And as a condition of the grant funding, counties will agree to pay for the application of conventional asphalt chip seal on two additional miles of road in their counties, to allow for comparison between conventional and rubber-modified asphalt.

© Scrap Tire News, May 2016