Rubberized Asphalt

Rubberized asphalt concrete (RAC), also known as asphalt rubber or just rubberized asphalt, is pavement material that consists of regular asphalt concrete mixed with crumb rubber–ground, used tires that might otherwise be discarded, taking up space in landfills, if they were not re-directed for use as tire derived fuel in power plants or other recycled rubber products. Asphalt rubber is the largest single market for ground rubber in the United States, consuming an estimated 220,000,000 pounds (100,000,000 kg), or approximately 12 million tires annually.

Use of rubberized asphalt as a pavement material was pioneered by the city of Phoenix, Arizona on several area freeways in the 1960s because of its high durability. Since then it has garnered interest for its ability to reduce road noise.

In 2003 the Arizona Department of Transportation began a three-year, $34-million Quiet Pavement Pilot Program, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration to determine if sound walls can be replaced by rubberized asphalt to reduce noise alongside highways. After about one year it was determined that asphalt rubber overlays resulted in up to 12 decibels of in road noise reduction, with a typical reduction of 7 to 9 decibels.

Arizona has been the leader in using rubberized asphalt, but California, Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Nevada, and New Mexico are also using asphalt rubber. Tests are currently underway in other parts of the United States to determine the durability of rubberized asphalt in northern climates, including a 1.3 mile stretch of Interstate 405 in Bellevue and Kirkland, Washington and a handful of local roads in the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2012, the State of Georgia issued a specification for the use of rubber-modified asphalt as a replacement for polymer-modified asphalt. In Belgium, tests in the ring of Brussel and in the F1 circuit of Francorchamp (see the film by Jean-Marie Piquint RUBBERIZED ASPHALT for Esso Belgium).