UK Company Tarmac Gets Approval for Rubber Asphalt

Tarmac, a construction materials and road contracting firm based in Solihull, England has secured industry approval for use of its rubber modified asphalt on the road network.

The firm says its ULTIPAVE R, which incorporates recycled rubber from end-of-life tires, is the first thin surfacing system of its kind to receive British Board of Agrément (BBA) HAPAS Clause 942 approval.

Testing was carried out over a number of years and the firm worked with Highways England in 2019, to test a trial section of the material on the southbound carriageway of the M1. Incorporating a higher percentage of rubber modification than the asphalt mixes previously used in trials with local authorities, this trial of ULTIPAVE R represented the first motorway resurfacing scheme to use an asphalt containing granulated rubber from the UK’s tire waste stream, the company said.

Tarmac has calculated it can reuse the rubber of up to 750 waste tires for every km of highway surfaced with the new material, depending on the thickness of the road.

The rubber-modified asphalt is manufactured with the company’s ULTILOW warm-mix binder technology which further reduces its embodied carbon.

“Using high-grade aggregates and rubber, ULTIPAVE R delivers impressive durability. Securing the BBA HAPAS approval is a major milestone for us and will enable us to introduce the product to more of our partners for use across the UK’s strategic road network, Brian Kent, National Technical Director at Tarmac,

The development of rubber asphalt is part of Tarmac’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and the circular economy, with the business recycling approximately 8 million tons of waste and secondary aggregates from other industries every year. It also builds on the company’s reuse of waste tires to power its cement kilns and its commitment as a net user of waste.

© Scrap Tire News, May 2021