Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP)
A sustainable pavement can be defined as a pavement that supports long-life engineering reliability, with minimum environmental impact. Given that pavements are material intensive assets, Kilsaran’s focus has been on the use of recycled materials in road construction in order to promote pavement sustainability.
Through the application of RAP technologies, a greater degree of sustainability can be achieved while maintaining the long-term performance of the pavement.
At Kilsaran, we have invested heavily into RAP manufacturing facilities and have been using RAP at our Dublin Asphalt Facility since 2018. We now have RAP facilities at all our Asphalt facilities. Using RAP means we require up to 40% less virgin raw materials, reducing the need to extract aggregates and bitumen. This gives up to a 15% reduction in embodied CO2.
RAP Trial on Public Road
Kilsaran undertook to develop a bituminous mixture which allows RAP mixtures to be produced at lower temperatures. RAP was utilised in a trial on the N80 Ballymacken Pavement Improvement Scheme In Portlaoise on behalf of Laois Co. Council and TII.
The project was divided into 5 sections consisting of conventional pavement containing RAP and pavement with RAP and Warm Mix Asphalt with different percentages of RAP included. This process allowed for accurate field validation of the project, and site trials.
Following, a rigorous testing regime, the trial was deemed a success where it was revealed that RAP in conjunction with Warm Mix on all the different sections proved to be a more durable option than the traditional conventional asphalt mixes.
