Abstract
The application of recycled aggregates (RA) from construction and demolition waste and crushed concrete blocks is a very important challenge for the coming years from the environmental point of view, in order to reduce the exploitation of natural resources. In Spain, the use of these recycled materials in the construction of road bases and sub-bases is growing significantly. However, presently, there are few studies focused on the properties and behavior of RA in civil works such as road sections or seaport platforms. In this work, two types of RA were studied and used in a complete real-scale application. Firstly, recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) were applied in the granular base layer under bituminous superficial layers, and secondly mixed recycled aggregates (MRA) which contain a mix of ceramic, asphalt, and concrete particles were applied in the granular subbase layer, under the base layer made with RCA. Both RA were applied in a port loading platform in Huelva, applying a 100% recycling rate. This civil engineering work complied with the technical requirements of the current Spanish legislation required for the use of conventional aggregates. The environmental benefits of this work have been very relevant, and it should encourage the application of MRA and RCA in civil engineering works such as port platforms in a much more extended way. This is the first and documented real-scale application of RA to completely build the base and sub-base of a platform in the Huelva Port, Spain, replacing 100% of natural aggregates with recycled ones.
Highlights
Several studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using recycled aggregates (RA) from construction and demolition waste (CDW) in structural road layers over last two decades [1,2].in recent years, the use of recycled aggregates in road and concrete applications has advanced considerably [3,4,5,6,7,8]
The subgrade was constructed with selected soil, being necessary to obtain in situ 100% or more of dry density standard Proctor determined in laboratory according to UNE 103500:1994
The modified Proctor (MP) was performed according to UNE 103501:1994. This test is similar to the standard Proctor but in this case five layers of the soil were compacted in the modified Proctor mold, applying a higher compaction energy
Summary
Several studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using recycled aggregates (RA) from construction and demolition waste (CDW) in structural road layers over last two decades [1,2]. Mixed recycled aggregates (MRA): in this category there are three types, and only types I and II can be used in road layers (Table 1) These MRA-I and MRA-II are products obtained in the treatment of CDW, containing ceramic particles (Rb) between 15% and 40%. RCA are the most widely used in granular unbound road layers This material meets the requirements establish by the PG-3, usually showing the same characteristics as a natural aggregate [13]. It is necessary to use these recycled materials in complete applications, in which all the conventional aggregates applied in structural layers can be replaced by RA to produce a significant reduction in environmental impact, maintaining the appropriate mechanical behavior and bearing capacity with respect to the conventional layers. Mechanical behavior, leaching properties, equivalent module, and deflections were studied to demonstrate the feasibility of using these materials in this type of application, which reduces the consumption of natural resources or raw materials, decreasing the ecological footprint
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