Using recycled asphalt materials as an alternative material source in asphalt pavements

Using recycled materials in pavement applications is a viable option to reduce costs and limit the environmental impact of road construction. During the past decades, many agencies in the U.S. have investigated the effect on pavement performance of adding Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), and, more recently, Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS) to asphalt mixtures, and limits were proposed on the amount of recycled materials which can be used. This paper investigates the effect of adding both RAP and RAS to virgin asphalt mixtures by means of a simple low temperature creep test performed on asphalt mixture beams. From the experimental work, creep stiffness, m-value, thermal stress and critical cracking temperature are calculated and compared statistically and graphically. Based on the results, it is concluded that most of the mixtures prepared with combinations of RAP and RAS perform similarly to standard mixtures at low temperature. For a limited number of mixtures, a negative effect is observed.