Development of asphalts and pavements using recycled tire rubber. Phase 1, Technical feasibility. Technical progress report, September 1, 1994--August 31, 1995

About 285 million tires are discarded every year; less than 100 million are currently being recycled, with the rest being placed in landfills and other waste sites. A solution to reduce the littering of the environment is to use ground tire rubber in road construction. Currently, about 27 million tons of asphalt are used each year in road construction and maintenance of the country`s 2 million miles of roads. If all of the waste tire rubber could be combined with asphalt in road construction, it would displace less than 6% of the total asphalt used each year, yet could save about 60 trillion Btus annually. Purpose of this project is to provide data needed to optimize the performance of rubber-asphalt concretes. The first phase is to develop asphalts and recycling agents tailored for compatibility with ground tire rubber. Chapter 2 presents results on Laboratory Testing and Evaluation: fractionate asphalt material, reblending for aromatic asphalts, verifying optimal curing parameters, aging of blends, and measuring ductilities of asphalt-rubber binders. Chapter 3 focuses on Evaluating Mixture Characteristics (modified binders). Chapter 4 covers Adhesion Test Development (water susceptibility is also covered). The final chapter focuses on the Performance/Economic Update and Commercialization Plan.