King County, Wash., Touts Successful Use of Shingles in Pavement

A report by King County, Wash., says that a one-year asphalt shingle recycling pilot project involving local and state agencies has proven to be successful. The Shingles in Paving Demonstration Project is touted by the county as the first project in the state of Washington to use recycled asphalt shingles in hot mixed asphalt to pave a public road.

The project comes after a determination that approximately 23,000 tons of tear-off asphalt shingles from roofing projects in the county go to landfill.

The King County report says using recycled asphalt shingles in asphalt paving has the potential to reduce the cost of paving.

In September 2009, a two-mile-long stretch of roadway in the county was overlaid with a 2-inch thick layer of asphalt paving materials in test sections with and without recycled asphalt shingles.

Staff from King County and the Washington State Department of Transportation recently surveyed the condition of the test sections of the roadway.

The King County Materials Laboratory performed pavement condition surveys by walking the site and documenting any distressed areas. Additional pavement condition surveys were conducted by the Washington State Department of Transportation using a distress data collection van that provided similar results.

An advisory group of representatives from the recycling and paving industries and solid waste, transportation and regulatory agencies helped guide the project.

“We are pleased to report that the pavement with recycled asphalt shingles is performing as well as the test sections with traditional asphalt paving,” says Paulette Norman, interim director of the King County Road Services Division.