Sustainable Pavements

The Ministry of Transportation Ontario, Canada, is committed to using technologies to help build a more sustainable transportation system that supports today's needs while protecting the environment for future generations. Cold in-place recycling (CIR) is an established pavement rehabilitation technology that processes an existing asphalt pavement, sizes it, mixes in additional asphalt cement, and lays it back down without off-site hauling and processing. The added asphalt cement is typically emulsified asphalt. A recent development in CIR technology is the use of expanded (foamed) asphalt, rather than emulsified asphalt, to bind the mix. This combination of CIR and expanded asphalt technologies is termed cold in-place recycled expanded asphalt mix (CIREAM). Both CIR and CIREAM technologies support the philosophy of a sustainable transportation system. More specifically, CIR and CIREAM meet the criteria for a sustainable pavement: safe, efficient, economic, environmentally friendly pavement that meets the needs of present-day users without compromising those of future generations.