FEATURE
A steady and relentless rain that endured for sever-al
weeks eventually washed out a heavily travelled
gravel road to the wastewater treatment plant in
rural Saskatchewan.
Nearby construction brought heavy equipment vehicles up and
down the road for days, which resulted in deep ruts to the point
where it became impassable. This proved to be a major inconve-nience
for staff at the treatment plant because it was the only thor-oughfare
to and from the facility.
The solution? Concrete dust.
Rock Crusher Recycling, a Regina-based company, also was on
site doing demolition work and crushing the waste materials like
concrete and asphalt. The tiny particles of concrete – the after-effect
of the crushing – quickly became the main ingredient in a new tem-porary
roadway.
“We were scooping up the recycled concrete and laying that down
on the road,” said Clint Fiessel, co-owner of Rock Crusher. “They
were using the crushed concrete for semitrailers and heavy equip-ment
to pass and it worked just fine.
“It just seemed to stand up better in the heavy rain than the grav-el
did. The gravel road was actually prepared properly and built to
spec and everything, but the temporary road that we built while it
was raining was standing up a lot better.”
Fiessel says it’s the cement powder that hardens when wet and
produces a solid slab.
He used the analogy of rolling dice and marbles. When you roll
dice, it will stop shortly after it leaves your hand, but the marble will
roll forever. When you have round rocks compared to cubed rocks,
the square rocks will lock together and when kicked up, they won’t
roll off. The stones in the gravel are rounded and they don’t bind to-gether
as quickly.
This is just one of the benefits of using recycled material for
road building.
Using recycled concrete and asphalt for new road construction
has been practised for decades, though it isn’t as popular as some
would assume. For example, provincial legislation in Alberta re-quires
most projects to use a minimum of 20 per cent recycled ma-terial
and offers environmental incentives to companies who build
with it. In Saskatchewan, little to no incentives are offered. Fiessel
hopes that changes.
“That’s what we’re really hoping for. Obviously, it would really help
our business and a lot of others, too,” he said.
Other benefits include:
• The recycled concrete product is lighter than gravel, so you’ll
require less material
• Recycled product binds together better, especially when it’s wet.
It holds the moisture better.
thinkbigmagazine.ca | Quarter 2 2018 | Think BIG 19
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