Mining Company Repurposes Crumb Rubber In Roads

Canadian mining company Teck is conducting a pilot project to recycle waste haul truck tires from its operations and repurpose crumb rubber from the tires in rubber asphalt pavement at its Trail Operations and Neptune Terminals in British Columbia.

Haul truck tires that have reached the end of their use, are sent to a third-party that separates the rubber. This rubber is added to a mix that paving companies introduce into asphalt while paving.

At Trail Operations, a single lane of the two-lane roadway has been paved with rubberized asphalt, with the opposite lane paved with regular asphalt mix, allowing comparison of the two lanes for performance wear and cracking over the next several years, with both subjected to equal amounts of traffic.

At Neptune Terminals, core samples taken a year after the installation of a rubberized asphalt mix in an active operating zone confirm that the paved areas that include the rubberized mix are performing better than regular asphalt.

Rubberized asphalt has been proven to last up to five years longer than regular asphalt, reducing maintenance and extending pavement life.

It reduces pavement fatigue, can be recycled and blended back into a new batch of asphalt and performs better in areas using studded tires, de-icing and snow plowing.

Teck sites generate 10,000 tons of scrap mining haul truck tires annually.

© Scrap Tire News, May 2024