Environmental Characteristics of Traditional Construction and Maintenance Materials

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) along with many other government agencies and private industries, are trying to do the three Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle. The TxDOT has a recycling and recycled products program that encourages the use of recycled materials into TxDOT's construction and maintenance operations. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to develop environmental specifications by identifying metal concentrations in leachate generated from traditional construction and maintenance materials. This information may be used to develop a baseline for which nonhazardous recycled materials (NRMs) must meet before their use in construction projects. The benefits of developing one baseline for all DOT materials are an increase in use of NRMs in DOT applications as well as the development of new construction materials.