Durability of potholes filled with waste materials

Abstract

Repairing and maintenance of potholes continues to be a serious problem for road construction organizations as they need to be reconstructed time to time. For rural and suburb areas the maintenance of potholes is rarely done because of high cost of materials and availability of equipment. Here is when the idea of using waste materials in potholes patching is bolded. With rapid increase of population and construction industry the disposal of waste material seems to be a major challenge for country like Afghanistan where large amount of plastic is being disposed to environment which due to non-biodegradable properties of plastic it would stay in environment almost forever and will cause pollution. Hence, the utilization of waste plastic is a big need for countries. Simultaneously, with spreading cities and upgrading roads lack of origin materials may occur on the other hand waste demolished materials from destructed buildings are being disposed on country sides and often in cities which create land pollution and traffic congestion. However, they can be used in road construction as a replacement of natural aggregate and fillers. Which will reduce in cost of the projects and help in reduction of these materials form environment. In this research poly ethylene plastics (PE) were used as admixture of bitumen in 4%, 6%,8% and 10% which came out that 8% is best for the mix. Accordingly waste demolished aggregate was used as a fully replacement of original aggregate. Basic aggregate tests were done on demolished aggregate and it was found that it can be used in bitumen mixes for use in district roads and village roads.