Sustainability and recycling
An alternative and more sustainable approach to building new roads and reconstructing old roads is to reuse the existing material combined with a binder to strengthen the road material providing another 20 or more years of pavement life. This process may be used for unsealed and sealed rural and urban roads, and it has been successfully used for urban freeways, such as the M4 in western Sydney.
Using the existing material eliminates the need for heavy construction equipment to move soil and pavement material to land fill and then return with quarry products. This also minimises further damage to streets, generates less noise, lowers vehicle emissions and results in less traffic congestion on the road network.
The ready availability of quarry materials is also declining because of strict new environmental guidelines and the need to respect land owners. It is now well understood that we must use our natural resources, including energy, more wisely.