It’s the height of construction season in Wisconsin, and some road projects in Wisconsin are relying heavily on recycled materials to help keep costs down.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation Bureau of Technical Services director Steve Krebs says over 1.5 million tons of recycled materials are used on highway and bridge improvement projects each year. “Virtually all of the old pavement and base course on our existing highways, when we rebuild those highways, is recycled in some form back into that infrastructure when we rebuild that piece of highway.”
Crews have also used fly ash from coal-fired power plants as cement replacement and shingles from roofing jobs in asphalt.
Using recycled materials in road projects saved the state about $14.3 million during the 2014-15 fiscal year. Krebs says it’s not just about saving money. “We’re using less natural resources, we’re saving money, and we’re having a smaller carbon footprint and less of an impact on the environment as a whole.”
Affiliate WSAU contributed to this report.