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Streets, Highways & Bridges
PennDOT mixes up a new type of road By DANI MESSICK | The Municipal
Pennsylvania may not be the first state to construct a road from recycled plastic, but leaders of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Strategic Recycling Program hope that their new roadway at Ridley Creek State Park will be a catalyst for continued projects and eventual state recycled roadway standards. “Our overall goal is to develop approved specifications for plastic use and asset application,” explained Dave Condo, PennDOT environmental chemist and program manager for the strategic recycling program. The new roadway at Ridley Creek State Park is one of many demonstration projects that will allow PennDOT to create standards and includes another in Lancaster County developed in March 2021, one in Delaware
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County and one in Allegheny County using various similar and different techniques. For example, one roadway in Allegheny County saw contractors mix asphalt with plastic bottles. This mixture is one that PennDOT hopes will lead to a long-lasting roadway that keeps plastic out of landfills. At Ridley Creek State Park, PennDOT used plastic bags and asphalt to create about half a mile of roadway on either end of the park’s main thoroughfare. They refreshed
ABOVE: Ridley Creek State Park Manager Alexa Rose speaks during the reopening of South Sandy Flash Drive. A portion of the roadway was paved, using a mixture of asphalt and recycled plastic. (Photo provided) the rest — about 1.5 miles — with a traditional asphalt mixture as a control sample. At the test site, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Crystal May said contractors ground up 30% of the original road wrap, compared to the normal 15%, using it along with the plastic additives on the upper two inches of the wearing course of the road. “We looked at a variety of recycled materials, not just plastics, but this has been a focus in the last year and a half,” said Jeffrey Obrecht, manager of Environmental Health and Safety
