Texas county tries “mechanical concrete”

Texas county tries “mechanical concrete”

A major Texas county is trying out a road bed system that uses old tires. Thousands of them, not chewed up into small pieces but basically intact. Once the worn out tires come off a vehicle and head to used tire dumps, this system steps in, removes the sidewalls and uses the old treads as a container for crushed rock. Once the sidewalls are removed, the treads are set on the ground and fastened together and then crushed rock is poured over the tires, with the road finish of choice–gravel, concrete or asphalt–installed over them The old tire treads are “geo-cylinders,” says the man behind the process, Sam Bonasso. They hold crushed rock, gravel or sand in place as a “mechanical concrete” in a roadbed. The system is being tried in various places in the country, says Bonasso, and its main advantages are its “green” value (from using all those landfill tires), its strength (high) and its cost (low). - See more at: http://www.betterroads.com