SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Department of Transportation road crews started recycling pavement onsite, which uses fewer trucks and crews, making jobs more cost-effective, officials said Tuesday.
“It keeps about 30 trucks off the road for your typical remove and replace,” said Sean Rivera, project manager with Granite Construction. “So with keeping all that traffic off the road, and keeping the project contained, there’s great benefits to the traveling public as well as to construction crews.”
The process for recycling pavement onsite is called “cold-in-place recycling.” Workers take existing roadway, run it through a mill, add emulsion and place it back, Rivera said.
Crews are using the process on an 8-mile section of State Route 32 along the Jordanelle Reservoir.
Rivera said it’s a great location and perfect application for the new process.
“We’re seeing great success in the first couple weeks of this job,” he said.
Normally material is hauled to a Salt Lake asphalt facility where it’s recycled then brought back to the construction site.
Rivera said crews use existing material and create a new subbase and then pave over it with the one-mix asphalt.
“In the final phase of the process, crews use a new layer of asphalt over the recycled materials and then a chip seal is applied to protect the road,” Rivera said.
