(Outdoor creatures) Asphalt Preservation - An Environment Friendly Mode Of Road Maintenance
No commentsBy ASI Solutions ASI Solutions
Carbon Study Supporting Uphill Struggle
Surfacing supplier ASIs latest effort to make headway in a difficult market is to publish an independent study into the green credentials of its specialist techniques.
Stockport has run out of potholes and Worcestershire County Council has reported 66% cost savings, all as a result of using Rhinopatch, says the systems proprietor. ASI Solutions has a long list of endorsements and good reasons to use its products. But the company has found it difficult to succeed in the UK highway sector and so commissioned an independent study to help.
The sustainability consultant Best Foot Forward (BFF) was asked to carry out the work a CO2 audit to prove the environmental benefits of ASIs Rhinopatch and Rapidrhino systems and its Rhinophalt asphalt preservative. All three could drastically reduce the amount of new hot mix asphalt needed to maintain roads so the BFF report shows ASI can potentially cut a large quantity of CO2 emissions.
Only the conventional alternative of planing out and resurfacing with recycled and new hot mix asphalt has been compared to ASIs products, so the work falls short of a full CO2 audit of UK surfacing methods. But the company has at least taken a step towards investigating how much CO2 is produced in maintaining roads. In doing so, ASI is also demonstrating the difficulties it faces trying to achieve widespread use of its innovative products.
Rhinopatch is a carriageway repair treatment that uses infrared to heat potholed or cracked areas which are then manually rejuvenated and compacted without leaving any joints behind. Rapidrhino is a similar, smaller version for emergency repairs and like Rhinopatch, leaves a permanent repair after one visit. The repairs and all road surfaces can be sealed with Rhinophalt, a Gilsonite based solution which is spray applied and penetrates the top 10mm of a road surface to prevent further oxidisation and ageing of the asphalt.
According to the BFF report, Rapidrhino produces 87% less CO2 than a conventional emergency repair and Rhinopatch delivers a 76% CO2 saving. Rhinophalt used once in comparison to two conventional resurfacing projects over a 10 year period saves 94% CO2 .
From these results we wanted to put the benefits in a national context and gave BFF quite conservative figures on quantities of asphalt produced for resurfacing each year. No-one really knows how much is done because emergency repairs are accounted as sundry items, says ASIs sales and marketing director Sonia McLintock. The QPA (Quarry Products Association) estimates that half of the 28Mt of asphalt produced each year is used in resurfacing and surface patching, but the QPA also says its figure is under
estimated by a factor of four.
ASIs estimate of asphalt used annually in UK resurfacing and patching is 25Mt giving off about 1.3Mt of CO2 . According to BFF, if road surfaces were preserved using Rhinophalt instead of replaced, CO2 emissions would be around 100,000t per year. Likewise, using Rhinopatch for all patching in the UK estimated by ASI at 9.6Mm2 per year equates to a CO2 saving of 625,000t.
The figures are approximate, but show methods to reduce the carbon footprint of road maintenance are available. Rhinophalt and the Rhinopatch systems have HAPAS approval so have already been proven to work over time on heavily trafficked roads Rhinopatch on the M40 for the Carillion and Atkins joint venture UK Highways.
According to ASI, Rhinopatch is being used extensively in Devon and Essex and by Coventry and Newcastle City Councils. It was also being used by Stockport City Council until it ran out of surface defects and ASI is doing quite well in Scotland. We have been using Rhinopatch for seven years and for us the technique has gone from strength to strength, says Tayside Contracts project manager Dougie McKay. It provides a first-time permanent fix and environmentally it requires no virgin material and produces much less noise and vibration because there is no need for jackhammers. As a company we think the system is great, for our employees and clients.
Tayside Contracts is a joint venture contracting organisation of Perth & Kinross, Angus and Dundee City Councils. According to Mr McKay, Rhinopatch and Rapidrhino are being used all year round for those three councils and Tayside has recently used the technique for Stirling and East Dumbarton as well. The contractor has two crews and sets of ASIs heaters working full time on carriageway repairs and is looking to double its Rhinopatch resources. Despite this and other glowing references, 10 years after launching its products, ASI is still finding real progress hard to come by, particularly in England.
In defence of some UK authorities, initial experience of using our products was not so good. The technology is now much better, but it is very difficult to get people to change the way they have been doing things for years and to convince them to really look at how they can improve the way things are done, says Sonia McLintock.
They should be doing good permanent repairs and preserving the road surfaces they have got. Then eventually they will close the gap between the road condition wanted and whats out there, because they will not be getting defects. We think the constant cycle of road resurfacing using virgin material to be wholly inefficient.
Chris Hough is author of this article on Pothole repair .
Find more information about Pothole repair here.
Learn About Outdoor Creatures In Wildlife
Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 4:45 am and is filed under environmental. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
