Rubber Modified Asphalt Surfaces

There are numerous advantages for using rubber-modified asphalt. First, rubber-modified asphalt is economical and employing it in roads and highways cuts construction costs. Also, pavement containing rubber-modified asphalt is quieter than that containing traditional material. Most important, however, is the fact that rubber-modified asphalt creates a market that consumes more than 18 million scrap tires per year, which equates to over three billion tons of scrap tire rubber. More widespread adoption of this technology has the potential to utilize virtually all scrap tires generated annually in the United States.

The term rubber-modified asphalt is a generic term used to describe all the various ways scrap tire rubber can be incorporated into asphalt pavements. Today, rubber-modified asphalt is used primarily in California and Arizona, where 180 million pounds of scrap tire rubber is consumed in those two markets (180 million pounds of scrap tire rubber translates to just over 980,000 scrap tires). In Arizona, rubber-modified asphalt has been successfully used on roads in areas ranging from desert heat to snow-covered mountains. Florida uses 16 million pounds of scrap tire rubber for their rubber-modified asphalt market, while South Carolina, Texas and New Mexico are using lesser amounts.