Improving the technical properties of recycled aggregates for road construction

Abstract

Sustainable construction, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure are currently of high priority in Norway. The development of the highway standards and specifications (e.g., N200) plays an important role, so that optimized use of recycled excavation materials and crushed concrete is achieved in the sub-base and base layers. Generally, factors that hinder the use of EM include geological complexity (i.e., composition of mechanically weak rocks), the absence of declaration policies, and a standard framework to characterize the testing frequency of general properties. Considering their application in permitted quantities in the base layer, it is expected that compliance with the mechanical performance, that is, Los Angeles (LA) and micro-Deval (MD) and other geometric properties designed for conventional materials will be met. In addition, given the related geological complexity, it is essential to identify the effects of chemical and mineralogical features, as this may enhance the opportunity to classify geological variations and optimize the performance by mixing the masses with other materials. In this study, the first approach involved the identification of knowledge gaps pertaining to the relationship between the local geology and the mechanical performance (LA and MD) of the aggregates.