The Alabama Department of Environmental Management will award more than $1.3 million to St. Clair County to help resurface a portion of Annie Lee Road near Moody with rubber-modified asphalt made from used tires. The road, adjacent to a plant waste disposal site where an underground fire has been burning for months, was damaged last year by large trucks carrying soil and other materials to put out the fire.
Through a grant agreement with the St. Clair County Commission, ADEM will reimburse the county for $1,355,342 of the cost of resurfacing 4.9 miles of road. The county commission agreed to provide her $523,905 for road work.
“This project will provide long-term benefits to the county and area residents,” said ADEM Director Lance LeFleur. “Roads will not only be repaired, they will be better than before, paved with long-lasting materials and provide a more comfortable and safe ride for drivers. Rubber-modified asphalt is a great alternative to conventional asphalt It has been proven to be a quality product.”
Funding for this demonstration project comes from the state's Scrap Tire Marketing Program, administered by ADEM. $1 from every tire sold in the state goes toward funding the program. This fund will be used to cover the cost of removing waste tires from illegally dumped items and roadsides, and to promote recycling of waste tires.
Rubber-modified asphalt is made up of conventional asphalt and crushed old tires. Research has shown that rubber-modified asphalt has many advantages over conventional asphalt. Rubber-modified asphalt lasts up to 50% longer and is less prone to potholes and cracks, plus it provides a quieter ride, reduces tire wear, and has lower rolling resistance. It improves fuel efficiency, improves traction, and improves safety by reducing driving shock. Fog forms on wet roads.
For years, the Alabama Department of Transportation has paved several sections of road with rubber-modified asphalt to test its durability and feasibility for expanded use on public roads.
Alabama State Parks is using rubber-modified asphalt in a demonstration project to repave roads and parking lots at three parks, including Lake Guntersville State Park, and ADEM will receive a 20-year contract from the Scrap Tire Marketing Program in 2022. They donated $829,080 to the project.
ADEM is using recycled waste tire material in its new mobile field office scheduled to open this spring. The office parking lot is paved with rubber-modified asphalt, and the promenade is made from recycled tires.
Funds from the Scrap Tire Marketing Program will also be used to reimburse local governments for the costs of picking up scrap tires along highways and clearing unauthorized tire dump sites.
“More than 5 million vehicle tires are replaced and discarded in Alabama each year. Millions more old tires are shipped to Alabama for disposal. All of those tires are somewhere. I have to go,” Lefleur said. “Burying it in a landfill is not an ideal solution because it takes up valuable landfill space.”
“The best way to dispose of waste tires is to recycle them for other uses. That's what ADEM does. By demonstrating the uses of recycled tires, we transform environmental issues into ones that provide value to society. We are contributing to the creation of a tire market that can transform
