PADUCAH, KY (May 17, 2021) – Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) District 1 has started a recycling project that is expected to save taxpayers $1 million over the course of six to eight years by repurposing concrete waste material.
A 100,000 ton stockpile of waste concrete stored in the median of Interstate 24 near mile marker 58 in Trigg County represents about half the concrete removed from a 13-mile eastbound concrete rehab project in 2020. Over the next several months, the material will be recycled to produce three of the most common types of rock highway crews use to repair and maintain roadways in the twelve-county district. One month into the recycling project, crews have converted more than 30,000 tons of concrete waste into useful aggregate.
“It’s exciting to be a part of taking what would be useless waste material and giving it new life by turning it into something practical that could save money,” said District 1 Chief District Engineer Kyle Poat. “Now that we’ve got the ball rolling, we’re finding that it is saving far more taxpayer dollars than we expected.”
District one leased a crusher and screening equipment. Maintenance personnel primarily from Lyon County will operate the machinery to produce the useful rock for short and long-term use.
The idea was sparked by KYTC Smithland Section Engineer Austin Hart, who supervised the I-24 rehabilitation project in 2020. The island in the I-24 median provided an excellent storage and processing area. The pile is expected to produce about a six to eight year supply of aggregate for the District 1 counties. Hart estimates about 4,600 truckloads of material will have to be hauled from the recycling site this summer.
“After about a month of operation, we have produced about 12,000 tons of aggregate #23 that we use for base material and slope protection,” said Hart. “We’ve produced 17,000 tons of dense grade aggregate. We have produced another 1,000 tons of rip rap that we commonly use for erosion control, but we’re just getting our processing equipment adjusted to start producing some serious quantities of that material. We think we can complete processing of the material by about Labor Day.”
The recycling project will cost an estimated $200,000, about what the district spends on rock purchases in an average year, to produce a 6 to 8 year rock supply. The operation is also producing additional savings by recycling steel rebar embedded in the waste concrete.
“On average, we fill up a roll-off bin with recycled steel every three to four days. At that rate, we estimate we’ll recover about $70,000 or more in scrap steel to further offset the cost of leasing the crushing and screening equipment,” Hart said.
Once most of the concrete is processed for recycling, Kyle Poat said there will still be adequate base material left at the storage site to provide a foundation for future construction of a regional salt storage dome and snow plow staging area.
The recycled material will be used for maintenance projects along highways across Kentucky’s 12 westernmost counties. KYTC District 1 is responsible for more than 1,285 miles of highway in Crittenden, Lyon, Trigg, Calloway, Marshall, Livingston, McCracken, Graves, Fulton, Hickman, Carlisle, and Ballard Counties.
Video of the recycling site in operation is available by going to www.facebook.com/kytcdistrict1. You do not have to be a Facebook member to access this page.