March 14, 2018 /3BL Media/ - This week, Troup County will complete the paving of the county’s first “rubber road” on the new Tom Hall Parkway. The project used over 32,000 pounds of recycled tire rubber (RTR) in the top layer or “wearing course” of the road, which represents the rubber taken from over 2,500 end of life passenger tires. The productive and profitable reuse of scrap tires into resilient, crack-resistant asphalt pavement reduces threats to community safety and public health that are inherent to illegal tire dumps, including dangerous tire fires and standing, fetid water that accommodates mosquito breeding.

Tom Hall Parkway was originally proposed in 2016 as a new connection in the LaGrange bypass system. In the later phases of the project design, The Ray identified and brought to county and city leadership the possibility of leveraging additional value by substituting a rubberized asphalt mix for the standard asphalt mix.

This advanced additive technology incorporates RTR directly into the asphalt mixture, thus reducing the volume of petroleum in the mix and extending the useful life of the pavement by 15 to 20 percent. The small upfront cost increase of RTR is easily returned in the immeasurable value of longer-lasting and more durable pavement that requires less maintenance over the life of the road.