A Spanish waste tire management company Signus has released a report outlining the successful implementation of rubberized asphalt mixtures in Spain; the report considers almost all projects carried out in the country with the material since 1996 up to the first quarter of 2017.

The report is of great value as currently there are over 1,600 kilometres of road works using crumb rubber from end-of-life tyres (ELT) in Spain.

Moreover, the document aims to provide information and experience concerning real works and the efficiency and improvements of certain features that crumb rubber gives to bituminous mixtures.

It also emphasized that the crumb rubber, when used in roads, has a lot of benefits. For instance, road surfaces still look and work as they did when first laid down, despite the fact that they had endured many unfavorable conditions while being used. These road surfaces are part of a new generation of bituminous mixtures that have been modified with a rubber-based product that was once waste know as end-of-life tyres (ELT). But the researchers managed to transform the waste into valuable products.

To attain that, Spain needed more than twenty years, as the state researches kept on studying the properties, usage and development of bituminous mixtures modified with crumb rubber from shredding and grinding of ELT. Trial and test works have been performed applying various technologies for adding crumb rubber into asphalt mixtures gaining knowledge and improving techniques and processes.

Moreover, it weren’t just the researchers. In addition, public administrations, concessionaire companies, constructors, manufacturers of asphalt mixtures, bitumen suppliers had been involved in the process to get the beneficial end result. After the years of research, rubberized binders and asphalt mixtures started to be used on roads, and this made authorities adopt special laws to regulate their usage. Therefore, Spain has adopted special laws and standards for the materials.

Article by Signus.