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Proceedings of the 18
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International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Once the fill operation for a cell has been completed for a
section of road, the geotextile should be wrapped around the
bale-fill composite with an overlap of around 1m. A crushed
rock sub-base should be placed and compacted on top of the
completed section. A thickness of 150mm is likely to be
sufficient to provide a construction platform for the works to
continue without damaging the geotextile. The final thickness of
sub-base must be assessed to ensure sufficient capacity during
normal use and should be the subject of site-specific design.
After these operations are completed the construction may
proceed to the next cell, repeating the process described above
until the road has been completed.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The use of lightweight tyre bales in the construction of road
foundations over soft ground has the potential to satisfy the
demand for low cost materials exhibiting such a beneficial
property. Such uses also help to address society’s broader
problem in respect of the large volumes of waste tyres which, in
Europe at least, may no longer be sent to landfill for disposal;
clearly such beneficial uses for waste tyres are required.
Supply and production issues are addressed and material
costs shown to be comparable with conventional materials such
as Type 1 sub-base. However, the key strength of tyre bales is
their modular nature which leads to potential savings in plant
and labour and the associated time savings. In some cases the
low cost of tyre bales relative to other lightweight materials,
such as expanded polystyrene, may allow the economic
construction or rehabilitation of infrastructure in remote areas
that would otherwise not be viable. An approach to the
construction of low-volume road foundations on soft ground
using tyre bales has been developed and is summarized herein.
Figure 3. Bulldozing sand to fill voids, County Road 342 (CR342), 2000
(left); vibrating sand into inter-bale voids, CR647, 1999. (Courtesy Ken
Smith, Chautauqua Co Dept of Public Facilities, NY.)
Tyre bales offer a useful tool for the engineer across a wide
range of construction applications that variously exploit their
beneficial properties: namely low density, high permeability,
high porosity and high bale-to-bale friction.
4.4
Pavement construction and drainage
Pavement construction is beyond the scope of this paper but
further guidance is given by Winter et al. (2006) as is more
detail on drainage considerations. The design should reflect
local standards and climatic conditions.
7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Copyright TRL Limited 2013. Funding was by the Veolia
Environmental Trust Landfill Tax Credits Scheme supported by
Inverness & Nairn Enterprise and Transport Scotland. The
Royal Academy of Engineering part-funded (International
Travel Award No. 04-301) a study visit to the USA.
5 SUCCESSFUL APPLICATIONS
Successful applications involving the construction of tyre bale
road foundations have been achieved in both the USA (New
York State) and the UK (Winter et al. 2005).
8 REFERENCES
Chautauqua County Department of Public Facilities
completed five projects using tyre bales as a lightweight
subgrade replacement for roads over soft ground (Figure 4). The
tyres result from the clean-up of a tyre dump and from a tyre
amnesty programme. The geology of the County is
characterised by sands and gravels in the river valleys with
glacially deposited fine silty clays elsewhere, primarily on the
hilltops which are often depressed forming high level swamps.
These materials are stable if dry but are sensitive to moisture
and to the freeze thaw cycle which can turn them into a material
like ‘pottery slip’. Conventional unpaved roads constructed on
them can turn into impassable quagmires. Tyre bale road
construction was targeted on these roads.
Anon. (2007). Specification for the production of tyre bales for use in
construction,
PAS 108
. London: British Standards Institution.
Anon. (2003). The B871 tyre bale project – the use of recycled tyre
bales in a lightweight road embankment over peat. Rovaniemi,
Finland: Roadscanners.
Collins, K. C., Jensen, A. C., Mallinson, J. J., Roenelle, V. & Smith, I.
P. (2002). Environmental impact assessment of a scrap tyre
artificial reef.
ICES Journal of Marine Science
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resource management: a mass balance approach.
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VR2.
Crowthorne: TRL Limited.
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SR 669
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HR Wallingford.
Figure 4. Completed CR342 2004 after four years in service (left); B871
in Highland, UK (right, Courtesy G Smith, Highland Council.).
Sonti, K., Senadheera, S., Jayawickrama, P. W., Nash, P. T. &
Gransberg, D. D. (2000). Evaluate the uses for scrap tires in
transportation facilities. Research Study 0-1808, Lubbock, TX:
Texas Tech University.
To date with the roads having been in service for up to nine
years no major signs of distress have been observed that could
be attributed to the presence of tyre bales. In the case of CR342
the traffic levels have been greatly increased (up to around
1,500 to 2,000 vehicles per day AADT) due to a new residential
development in the vicinity.
Winter, M. G., Reid, J. M. & Griffiths, P. I. J. (2005). Tyre bales in
construction: Case Studies.
TRL PPR 045
. Crowthorne: TRL
Limited.
Winter, M. G., Watts, G. R. A. & Johnson, P. E. (2006). Tyre bales in
Construction.
TRL PPR 080
. Crowthorne: TRL Limited.
Winter, M. G., Williammee, R & Prikryl, W. (2009). The application of
tyre bales to the repair of slope failures.
Proceedings, Institution of
Civil Engineers (Engineering Sustainability)
, 162(ES3), 145-153.
A public road was constructed by Highland Council (UK) in
late-2002 (Anon. 2003); performance has been satisfactory
despite extreme loadings imposed by a very high proportion of
heavy logging trucks using the route (Figure 4).
Zornberg, J. G., Christopher, B. R. & Larocque, C. J. (2004).
Applications of tire bales in transportation projects. Recycled
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. Baltimore, MA:
American Society of Civil Engineers.
