Recycled tire asphalt grant funding available to counties
FRANKFORT – Date: 04-26-2017 — Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Charles G. Snavely announced Wednesday that grant funding will be made available to counties for projects that use recycled Kentucky waste tires in rubber-modified asphalt paving projects. This grant can be used to fund either chip seal or thin asphalt overlay pavement projects.
With dwindling resources for especially E. Ky. counties, the cheaper material may be the best choice.
Lawrence judge/executive John Osborne and the local fiscal court has mentioned using the material in recent months since Lawrence has more roads than it does money to upkeep them especially without the coal severance tax monies that came in recent years.
Counties may apply either for funding for up to 24,000 square yards of chip seal paving or up to 12,000 square yards of asphalt overlay paving. Counties may not apply for both options, a state news release said.
Successful applicants will be required to complete an equivalent project on a similar section of road using standard asphalt, at their own expense, in order to compare the performance of standard versus rubber-modified asphalt.
Rubber-modified asphalt involves amending standard asphalt with crumb rubber derived from recycled waste tires. Chip seal is a pavement surface treatment that combines one or more layers of liquid asphalt with one or more layers of fine aggregate, while an asphalt overlay consists of a thin layer of asphalt pavement applied over an existing asphalt surface. The thickness of an overlay for the purposes of this project should not exceed 1.5 inches.
Depending on the application, rubber-modified asphalt has numerous potential benefits including increased skid resistance, increased road life and noise reduction, in addition to providing a valuable end use for recycled waste tires. The objective of the grant is to determine if rubber-modified asphalt can provide superior performance to standard asphalt in certain applications.
Funding for the grant comes from the Kentucky Waste Tire Trust Fund, which receives $1 from every new tire sold in the Commonwealth. In addition to providing funding to promote the development of markets for recycled waste tires, the fund also supports waste tire collection events, tire pile clean-ups, and grants for counties to manage waste tires, the news release said.
Grant applications must be submitted no later than June 5, and projects must be completed by Dec. 31, 2017. Grant applications packets will be sent by email to county judge-executives and solid waste coordinators.
For more information, call or email Gary Logsdon at (502) 782-6405 or Gary.Logsdon@ky.gov. You can learn more about the cabinet’s waste tire programs at http://waste.ky.gov/RLA/Waste%20Tires/Pages/default.aspx
Lazer Editor & Publisher Mark Grayson added to this story
