Asphaltech’s innovation in sustainable product development has been recognised at the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) 2020 Awards.
The company took home the award for Best Public Works Project Under $2 Million last night for its November 2019 rehabilitation of Walter Road West in Perth’s City of Stirling, using 100% Recycled Cold Emulsion Asphalt (100% RCEA).
The Northern Suburbs city council, which is focused on decreasing its carbon footprint and environmental impact, chose 100% RCEA for its environmental sensitivity, excellent value for money and superior strength and longevity.
The trailblazing product is made from 100% recycled material, uses 53% less energy and produces 54% less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional hot mixed asphalt, making it a perfect choice for environmentally-conscious city councils like the City of Stirling.
The Winning Combination
Around 1000 tonnes of 100% RCEA consisting of 50% Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) and 50% recycled roadbase – both profiled and recycled from existing road pavement, was used to resurface the road, with zero profiling material ending up in landfill.
The 100% RCEA was also produced, transported, placed and compacted at ambient temperature, avoiding entirely the risks of hot bitumen burns and smells to construction works both at the plant and at the Walter Road West site.
Asphaltech maintained its safety-first track record with the works, avoiding any incident or accident reports, despite the project management and implementation challenges that came with such a complex job. These included a tight seven-day deadline and the guaranted of no delays to opening the roads to the public.
With the works scheduled to be carried out over a series of consecutive night shifts, a well-planed noise management plan also had to be implemented to ensure the heavy machinery such as hauling trucks, pavers and rollers, did not disturb residents in the local area.
Only the Best for Walter Road West
Asphaltech achieved excellent compaction results using the latest compaction equipment on the works, including oscillating steel wheel rollers and vibrating multi-tyred rollers, resulting in a much stronger and prolonged life road was warranted.
This strength and performance of the new asphalt was tested soon after the road’s completion in November 2019 through a regime including Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD), Indirect Tensile Modulus, Permeability and Four-Point beam Fatigue testing organised by Asphaltech in partnership with the City of Stirling.
So far, the available test results have shown a promising superior performance when compared with its traditional counterpart, hot mixed asphalt.
