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Capital mulls using recycled asphalt for roads

The overall objective of the process is to nurture a sustainable future aligned with the highest global standards and in line with Abu Dhabi 2030 Plan.

Abu Dhabi - The Abu Dhabi City Municipality is currently assessing the feasibility of recycling cold asphalt at site and applying it in revamping road layers, thus obviating the need to transport materials to the project site.

The project stems from the keenness of the municipal system of Abu Dhabi to address the needs and standards of sustainability in all projects such that they become a guiding reference to all projects undertaken in the capital city Abu Dhabi and suburban areas. The overall objective of the process is to nurture a sustainable future aligned with the highest global standards and in line with Abu Dhabi 2030 Plan aimed at making Abu Dhabi a model of a sustainable metropolitan cities.

The municipality has applied this procedure tentatively in Street 16 at Shahama in an area spanning 2000 square metres.

Under this context, the municipality indicated that maintenance and rehabilitation of roads used to be carried out through removing impacted asphalt layers and re-paving them using fresh materials; an exercise which involves the consumption and exhaustion of natural resources, besides raising the carbon footprint of maintenance and rehabilitation of road projects. So the main objective of this project was to explore the possibility of re-using recycled asphalt in rehabilitating and maintaining roads.

The Municipality has applied this procedure tentatively in Street 16 at Shahama in an area spanning 2000 square meters. The infrastructure sustainability team at the municipality conducted a comprehensive study about various phases of the project covering assessing the road condition through site inspections, discussing different scenarios of rehabilitating the road, taking sample for lab & site tests, and considering different design options for rehabilitating the road from technological, financial and environmental perspectives. The study also focused on the time needed to complete the project, and came up with a number of findings.

The project concluded that using the cold asphalt technology in rehabilitating roads is viable from technological and financial aspects, besides contributing to minimizing the use of natural resources needed for road construction. It also saves power needed to extract & transport raw materials, besides slashing the duration of completing road rehabilitation projects. The procedure will thus conserve the environment and bring about a host of social benefits, besides meeting the standards & requirements of sustainable development in road projects.

reporters@khaleejtimes.com