Recycling Center. New Concrete Overlay for the Existing Asphalt Pavement

The pavement of the so-called “recycling centers” in the cities requires special attention because of their special conditions. On the one hand, the pavement has to have adequate impermeability against different residues that could have potential contaminants that could leach into the subsoil. On the other hand, they should fulfill resistance requirements, flexotraction, strength to support traffic, friction and impacts due to the lifting and setting down of the waste containers. These facilities, in many cases, have been surfaced with irregular criteria. In this paper, the paving work of the "recycling center" of Écija is exposed. The project took place from December 2008 to February 2009. Écija is a town located east of Seville that endures extreme climatic conditions, having high temperature in summer and a fairly cold winters. The sustainability criteria focused on the minimization of construction waste generation, and the adequate features that are provided by “agglomerated asphalt + concrete” superposition, which allowed us to keep the previous asphalt paving as a base for the new concrete paving. This solution, together with specific surface treatments for the most hard-hits areas (the areas where the containers are lifted and dropped), led us to solve the new requirements for these facilities in an effective way. The final result can be achieved in a very short time-frame, which allows a prompt resumption of the activity of the Recycling Center. The generation of construction waste is practically none, and this method is more economically efficient than the demolition and repaving of previous asphalt.