Vladimir Maryev, Deputy Director of the Department of Scientific and Technical Development and Standardization chaired the session, dedicated to applying secondary resources in road construction within the 13-th International Conference on Sustainable Waste Management and Circular Economy.
Currently, the use of industrial waste in road construction attracts significant interest in terms of reducing technogenic impact and improving the environmental safety of Russian citizens.
According to statistics, at least 40 billion tons of industrial and consumption waste have been accumulated in Russia, and only 30% of this volume will undergo recycling. The circulation of secondary resources is an important asset for saving natural resources in the construction and repair of highways, as well as for increasing the energy and financial efficiency of the road industry.
Since 2018, FAI “ROSDORNII” has been carrying out systematic work aimed at assessing the possibility of involving industrial waste at pilot sites in individual regions and cities, such as the Republic of Buryatia, Magadan, Tomsk, Sakhalin, Kemerovo, Sverdlovsk region, and the Republic of Khakassia.
The Federal Road Agency has prepared and approved a roadmap for expanding the use of ash and slag materials, as well as innovative construction technologies in road industry. Russia has also accumulated experience in the use of crumb rubber, technical sulfur, phosphogypsum, and metallurgical slag in road construction.
However, due to restrictions, as well as high technical requirements for materials based on recycled resources, they are currently not widely used. Over the past 2 years, the Government of the Russian Federation has initiated a number of industry programs that will create a systematic approach to the issue of industrial waste utilization that is accumulated and annually generated at large-scale.
In addition, as part of the scientific and practical session, Alexander Nesvetailov, Deputy Head of the Information Support Section of FAI “ROSDORNII”, made a report on cooperation with the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) of India in the field of application of secondary resources in road construction, in particularly in the use of metallurgical and blast furnace slag as a filler in the production of asphalt concrete mixes.
“Such interaction plays a big role, since scientific institutions in Russia and India have unique experience in using slag-based asphalt concrete. It includes the construction of road sections in regions with low temperatures (ROSDORNII) and regions with high precipitation (CRRI). In both cases, slag-based asphalt concrete offers high performance,” the speaker said.
Reference information
FAI “ROSDORNII” is engaged in the innovative development and improvement of the quality of highways, performing fundamental, exploratory and applied research and development projects for road industry.
The branch offices of the Institute have advanced laboratory facilities that allow them to conduct a full range of tests of road construction materials based on secondary resources.