At the peak of road repair season, a central Iowa city is now recycling concrete, soil and asphalt to patch up roads and alleys to save money.
Jim Scott, operations manager for Des Moines’ Public Works Streets Division, says recycled concrete is turned into a subbase that meets state regulations. It serves as a foundation underneath the top layer of concrete for road repairs.
“A lot of the city, because it’s so old, the concrete was placed on native soil, so there is no compacted subbase under it,” Scott says. “It’s more apt to fail because it doesn’t adequately disperse the water from underneath the concrete panels, and so this subbase system is going to help that.”
Scott says before the city started recycling materials from old sidewalks and roads, it would all go to the landfill.
“You would have to pay what’s known as a tipping fee or a dumping fee and there’s a lot of cost associated with that,” Scott says. “Plus, the landfills are filling up and we don’t really have new sites designated yet that’s going to replace them in the near future.”
Scott says the program is environmentally- and fiscally-responsible.
City officials estimate the program will save about $415,000 a year on materials and landfill fees. It comes as Iowa’s largest city is dealing with an expected $12-million budget shortfall next fiscal year.
(By Meghan McKinney, Iowa Public Radio)