EcoLanes: Paving the Future for Environmentally-Friendly and Economical Concrete Roads

Abstract

With increasing oil prices the future of asphalt roads on deep foundations is becoming increasingly uncertain, due to increased costs as well as political and environmental concerns. Concrete pavement bases can reduce the foundation layers and decrease or eliminate the asphalt topping. Prior to the on-going oil crisis, concrete bases were generally more expensive to construct, and were mostly used in heavily trafficked sections and to reduce maintenance. Concrete bases are in general reinforced with steel mesh to improve their strength characteristics; however, this process is labour intensive and has health and safety problems.
Premixed steel fibre reinforcement is also used to replace the mesh and provides a less  laborious construction technique. Steel fibres are normally derived from virginsteel wire an d are more expensive than mesh reinforcement. Recently, it has been shown that recycled steel fibres, produced from post-consumer tyres, offer an attractive low cost alternative solution. Recycled aggregates, pulverised fuel ash and low energy cements may also be employed to reduce costs and energy input.
This paper presents an overview of the EcoLanes research project, which investigates the above issues and aims to develop long lasting rigid pavements for surface transport by utilising roller compaction techniques and low cost steel fibre reinforced concrete.