Rubberized asphalt is a road surfacing material made from bituminous concrete and finely ground waste rubber. It offers superior wear characteristics, resistance to reflection cracking, and noise reduction. The manufacturing process involves grinding scrap tires and mixing the clarified aggregate with a binder before adding it to asphalt cement mix. Rubberized asphalt is more flexible, resists rutting, and produces less road noise. It also has a positive environmental impact by reducing the number of tires in landfills.
Rubberized asphalt is a mixture of bituminous concrete and finely ground waste rubber material that is used as a road surfacing material. It has proven to be a superior product to ordinary asphalt in several areas, including its general wear characteristics, resistance to reflection cracking and traffic noise reduction. It also offers an interesting alternative to dumping waste tires in landfills. The rubber asphalt manufacturing process involves grinding scrap tires into a fine aggregate and removing all fabric and steel fibers, mixing the clarified aggregate with a binder before adding it to an asphalt cement mix conventional. The resulting mixture is then applied in the same manner as regular asphalt surfacing material.
As tough and durable as asphalt used for road surfaces may be, it degrades over time, forming potholes, cracks and ridges. In an effort to address road surface degradation in 1971, the City of Phoenix applied rubberized asphalt commonly used as a chip sealing layer to a section of road as a temporary measure. Despite pessimistic expectations, the quick fix proved extraordinarily successful and the road was not reopened for 20 years. This has led to the specific development of rubberized asphalt as a specific agent for the road surface.
Rubberized asphalt production begins with scrap tires that are stripped of all fabric and steel reinforcement and ground into an aggregate with the approximate consistency of ground coffee. The crumbled rubber, as is known, is then bagged and transferred to the relevant asphalt production plant of the contracting firms. Upon arrival, the crumbled rubber is mixed with a specially formulated binder and transported to the hot asphalt plant where it is mixed with a conventional hot asphalt cement mix consisting of asphalt and a fine stone or sand aggregate. This final mix is then applied to the road surface using standard resurfacing techniques.
The use of rubber treated asphalt offers several distinct advantages over standard mixes. Roads paved with the product tend to age better than conventional surfaces due to the inherent flexibility of rubber and the antioxidants found in tire materials. Rubberized asphalt surfaces also resist rutting, or ridge formation, better than untreated asphalt surfaces. In addition, the slip resistance of rubber-treated asphalt surfaces is higher, making driving conditions safer.
Roads covered with rubberized asphalt are also less prone to reflective cracking, which is a phenomenon where new surfaces develop cracks that mirror those of the old surface. Rubber-treated asphalt surfaces also produce significantly less road noise, in some cases returning up to a 12 decibel reduction with averages of between four and five decibels. Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of using rubberized asphalt is the positive environmental impact it has, with between 500 and 2,000 scrap tires entering each lane mile of road surface. This means fewer tires end up creating environmental problems in landfills, further increasing the value of the process.
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