ARRB and Brimbank working towards 100% recycled roads

ARRB is working with an innovative Victorian Council, monitoring an important project which will potentially open the way for more recycled glass to be used in roads.

Brimbank Council in Melbourne’s west is working with ARRB on the Australian-first project to trial finely crushed recycled glass in asphalt on two residential streets in Deer Park.

Brimbank is the first local government area to lay this much glass in the road surface on its roads. It includes up to 10 per cent recycled glass and 25 per cent recycled asphalt.

Brimbank Mayor Cr Jasmine Nguyen said this innovative road project was paving the way towards 100 per cent recycled roads, with reduced costs and waste for all local governments.

“By testing and monitoring the innovative asphalt over the next two years, Brimbank can assist in the development of a new standard surface that incorporates more recycled materials, to be implemented in all future local government roads,” Cr Nguyen said.

The trial is broken up into six sections. This is across 800 metres of road in Newbury Street and Gould Street in Deer Park. Council is working closely with the ARRB to continue to test and monitor the performance of the road surface over the next two years. If the results of the trial are successful, it will significantly reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

ARRB Sustainability Principal Professional, Dr James Grenfell, said the trial included multiple suppliers of recycled glass materials, and involved control sections without recycled glass, for comparison.

“It’s expected the recycled crushed glass mixes will perform just as well as the control mixtures. That will give us confidence moving forward that we can utilise recycled crushed glass in the road surface for local government both in rehabilitation and for re-sheeting purposes,” he said.

Brimbank Council will also advocate to the Victorian Department of Transport to create new technical standards for the use of increased recycled materials in road pavements in all local government areas. This would outdate the current VicRoads standards which allow for up to five per cent recycled crushed glass in roads.

Brimbank City Council, Sustainability Victoria, ARRB and Department of Transport co-funded the innovative road project. Brimbank City Council has partnered with ARRB, Fulton Hogan, Alex Fraser and Downer to develop the commercialisation of the new asphalt product.