Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
Waste Tire Reuse Technology for Heavy Duty Road Bed
Construction Applications Landfill Brownsville, Texas
Although the tasks and activities set forth in this report have been funded in part by the U.S. EPA
and the BECC, such tasks/activities do not necessarily reflect the policies, actions, or positions of
the U.S. EPA and the BECC.
FINAL PROJECT REPORT
BECC/EPA REGION VI PROJECT # SOLTA – C11 – 006
SEPTEMBER 16, 2013
PROJECT CONTACT:
Principal Investigator: Kim Jones, Ph.D.
MSC 213, Department of Environmental Engineering
Texas A&M University – Kingsville
Kingsville, TX 78363
Ph: (361) 593-2187, fax (361) 593-2069, e-mail: kfkdj00@tamuk.edu
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
COVER PAGE.............................................................................................................................................. 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................. 2
I.INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1
Statement of Purpose and Objectives............................................................................................ 3
1.2
Project Area .................................................................................................................................. 4
1.3
Project Description and Work plan ............................................................................................... 5
II.ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................................. 7
A.
Project Personnel & Partners ............................................................................................................ 7
B.
Summary of Project Budget .............................................................................................................. 9
C.
Contact Information .......................................................................................................................... 9
III.ROAD BUILDING WORKPLAN IMPLEMENTATION & CONSTRUCTION ................................ 10
A.
Work Plan Implementation ............................................................................................................. 10
B.
Construction Process ....................................................................................................................... 11
IV.PUBLIC EDUCATION AND OUTREACH ........................................................................................ 14
A.
Reaching out to the Public .............................................................................................................. 14
B.
Conferences and Seminars .............................................................................................................. 14
V.CONCLUSIONS & CHALLENGES ..................................................................................................... 15
A.
Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................... 15
B.
Findings & Challenges .................................................................................................................... 16
VI.PHOTO RECORD ................................................................................................................................. 17
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
I. INTRODUCTION
1.1
Statement of Purpose and Objectives
The overarching project goal was to reduce land contamination by promoting the development of
solid waste recycling of waste tires.
The specific purpose of this project was to:

To evaluate the performance of waste tire bales in heavily loaded highway construction
applications through participation with the municipal landfill in the US/Mexico border area
of Brownsville, Texas

To assist in achieving Goal #3 - By 2010, clean up three of the largest sites that contain
abandoned waste tires in the U.S.-Mexico border region, based on policies and programs
developed in partnership with local governments

To make available to the border region a viable part of a long term solution for the regional
scrap tire problem in rural communities of the border region, and hence reduce land
contamination

And to add one more viable waste tire disposal application to help alleviate their contribution
to occupying valuable landfill space and the added costs to communities.
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
1.2
2012
Project area for tire bale roadbed construction
The project site is at the city of Brownsville Municipal Landfill in the semi-arid southern coastal
region of Texas (See Figure 1 below). The road site location has a low elevation, about 11 feet
above sea level and is primarily made up of Barrada soils. The Barrada series comprises very
deep, poorly drained, low permeability soils that have formed in saline, clayey over loamy
alluvial and storm wash over sediments of Holocene age. This project can be beneficial to both
sides of the border for waste tire management because of the similar soils in the underlayment
for road building.
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
The blue line rectangle in Figure 1 shows the roadbed test section constructed and evaluated at
the northern side of the City of Brownsville landfill site location.
1.3
Project Description and Work plan
The project site is of significance because of its low elevation and poor drainage, about 11ft
above sea level. It has a high water table and is vulnerable to flooding; thus this test of the
technology is a worst case scenario. Installations with better drainage and elevation could be
expected to perform better from a structural integrity viewpoint.
The roadbed construction work plan followed is outlined below:













Review construction plans with Brownsville Landfill superintendent.
 1 week
Grade area adjacent to road for draining.
 4 days
Make road area ready for geotextile.
 2 days
Stock pile soil for road shoulders.
 1 week
Stock pile cushion sand.
 1 week
Verify quantity of tire bales on site.
 1 day
Lay geotextile.
 1 days
Arrange tirebales.
 5 days
Secure geotextile and build road shoulders.
 2 days
Apply sand on tirebales using roller vibrator.
 1 week
Use water over sand and add sand as necessary.
 week
Add caliche or gravel over sand.
 4 days
Compact with roller vibrator. 2 days
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report

2012
Perform structural and environmental monitoring with water hauler traffic to help optimize
tire bale placement, compaction and performance.


6 months – 12 months
Communicate findings of this project to Texas/Mexico waste tire management stakeholders
and SEMARNAT.

1.5 year
The activity schedule followed is shown on the flow chart below.
Meet with city(1 day)
Grade drainage area(2days)
Prepare roadbed for geotextile(1day)
stockpile soil for road shoulder(7days)
stockpile cushion sand(7days)
Check tire bale(1day)
Lay geotextile(1day)
Arrange tirebale(3days)
secure geotextile and build up road shoulder(2days)
apply sand on tirebale using roller vibrator(5days)
add water to compact/compress(5days)
spread caliche over road bed(3days)
Compact roadbed
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
II. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
A. Project Personnel & Partners
Dr. Kim Jones - is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment at
Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the States of
Texas and Georgia. Dr. Jones is leading many efforts in engineering research and technology
transfer designed to protect human health and the environment. He has also served as an
Environmental Staff Engineer with Camp, Dresser & McKee performing evaluations of
environmental technologies and water quality evaluations. He was a district production engineer
and research engineer for over 10 years at Atlantic Richfield Company focused on reservoir
management and produced water treatment.
Abel P Garza – is the Environmental Liaison Institute for Sustainable Energy and the
Environment at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He has managed projects in the areas of
construction such as directed a shoreline restoration project, examine construction of a 300 gpm
wastewater treatment plant with sewer lines, associated lift stations and connections to 34 homes.
Managed excavating and installing chilled water lines, managed development and
Implementation of Innovative BPMs into three stormwater detention facilities and
selection/installation of monitoring equipment. He is now retired.
Ing. Eliacib A Leija Garza - Delegado Federal de Tamaulipas (SEMARNAT)
Don Marek – Lab Manager (TAMUK)
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
Ayo Falade has a degree in Civil Engineering and has just obtained his Masters in
Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Steven Graybill has been employed with the City of Brownsville and is superintendent of the
Brownsville Landfill. He has over 15 years experienced in road building for the city facilities.
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
B.
2012
Summary of Project Budget
PROJECT TITLE: Brownsville Landfill Tirebale Road
Categories
Number Item(s) Cost Each
Staff/Personell Fees
Env Proj Mgr
.25 mo
Graduate Student
5.0 mo
$ 1,000.00
Undergraduate Student
2 mo
$
397.50
Total BECC/EPA Funds
$
$
$
1,000.00
5,000.00
795.00
$
1,172.00 $
1,172.00
6/240
6 nights
$
$
0.43 $
75.00 $
619.00
450.00
4
1
$
4,700.00 $
$
$
4,700.00
-
$
$
$
13,736.00
$
$
1,264.00
15,000.00
Fringe Benefits
Leverage Amount
Travel
Trips/miles
Hotel
Supplies
Deflection Cells
Supplies
Sub-contract
Miscellaneous Cost
Subtotal
Indirect Cost
15% Indirect Charges
TOTAL
* Other materials to be provided by Brownsville Landfill.
C. Contact Information
For readers with questions about the project or report contact:
Principal Investigator: Kim Jones, Ph.D.
MSC 213, Department of Environmental Engineering
Texas A&M University – Kingsville
Kingsville, TX 78363
Ph: (361) 593-2187, fax (361) 593-2069, e-mail: kfkdj00@tamuk.edu
TOTAL
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
III.ROAD BUILDING WORKPLAN IMPLEMENTATION & CONSTRUCTION
A. Work Plan Implementation
The team from TAMUK including the Project Investigator Kim Jones, the Lab Manager Don
Marek and the graduate student Ayo Falade met with the Landfill Superintendent Steve Graybill
and his staff to review the engineering design drawings (Figure 2), construction procedure and
finalize plans on the start of work as slated in the schedule of activities.
Figure 2: Section showing the tire bale road layers.
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
B. Construction Process
A Ditch Witch excavator was employed to excavate trenches for the deflection cells. The
deflection devices to conduct performance tests were buried beneath the soil in the test road
sections.
Each trench has 2 sensors 20 feet apart. The trench is 1 foot deep and 8 inches wide. Once the
trench was excavated, it was filled with 100 mm thick manually compacted soft sand. The
deflection cell was laid down and covered with 100 mm thick soft sand to prevent impact from
stones or pebbles. All 4 deflector cells were buried this way. The exact location of each sensor
was mapped out with a GPS and recorded. The sub grade was then compacted with fill material
and graded adequately.
The geo-textile material used for this project was woven with parallel strands interlaced with
each other. The weave pattern of the geotextile enhances its strength. The geotextile (12ft x 300ft
dimension) was spread across a section of the road and the tire bales were aligned accordingly.
The geotextile to geotextile interfaces each had an overlap of about 2 ft. The purpose of the
geotextile is to strengthen the structure by binding together the assembly of tire bales and also
separate the bales from the subsoil, thus preventing the migration of sand downwards. This also
serves as anchor to the tire bale structure and enhances its drainage performance. The bales were
placed about 3 ft. away from the edge of the geotextile to allow enough material cover for the
bale structure once the tire bale placement was complete. The geotextile was held in place by 6”
long steel anchors pegged along the edge with 10 ft. spacing. The 40 ft. wide road was covered
with 4 geotextile sheets. Bale to bale measurements was approximately 40 ft. and six rows of tire
bales were placed over the fabric.
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
Once the tire bale arrangement was completed, the geotextile was wound round the tire bale and
the extra overlap was cut off. Small voids between adjacent bales were filled with sand to
maximize the stiffness of the structure and to ensure stability. Heaps of sand were unloaded at
the site and a bulldozer was used to spread the material across the bale section and then a
vibrating roller was used to compact the structure. The compaction continued to ensure there
were no voids left. The entire road section was visually inspected after the compaction process.
Once the fill operation was completed and compacted to satisfaction, crushed rock base (locally
called caliche) was laid over it and also compacted.
Photos of the road bed construction process are included in the photo diary below.
Preliminary evaluations were conducted by driving trucks of known weight over the road
sections. The response of both the tire bale road (TB) and the conventional road (CR) to
increasing load was observed. Table 1 on the following page shows the load applied to the test
sections and the corresponding average deflections observed on the road.
2012
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
CR
TB
Truck range
Load(lb)
deflection(inches)
deflection(inches)
Light duty
1,092
0
0.067
1,525
0
0.127
5,240
0
0.324
6,490
0.006
0.45
12,340
0.03
0.87
14,000
0.03
1.002
14,700
0.03
1.062
16,060
0.072
1.284
Medium duty
Heavy duty
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
IV.PUBLIC EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
A. Reaching out to the Public
One of the objectives of this project was to disseminate the findings and outcomes to the public.
On completion with support of our partner from Mexico (SEMARNAT) the findings will be
publicized on the other side of the border. It will also be shared with other landfills in South
Texas area especially in Laredo and Brownsville part of the border.
B. Conferences and Seminars
The results of the preliminary findings were presented at the Border 2020 meeting in Weslaco.
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
V. CONCLUSIONS & CHALLENGES REMAINING
A.
Conclusions
This demonstration project involved the use of deflection sensors to determine the performance
of a test road built with tire bales providing a new and unique method of evaluation. The
performance of a road built with tire bales as fill material with respect to a conventional road
with soils as fill material has been preliminarily evaluated using this technology.
Results showed there was slight difference in deflection values between the instrumented
conventional road and the tire bale road. The conventional road exhibited an average value of
0.06 inch of deformation at about 6,500 lbs load value while the tire bale road exhibited a
slightly higher value of about 0.45 inches at the same load conditions with the medium range
trucks.
The deflection values increased slightly with the heavier trucks.
The data obtained in this study provides insight into the deformation behavior of tire bales under
different loadings in field scale road conditions. The data and analysis generated in this study
should be useful in further developing specific recommendations and guidelines on the use of tire
bales for engineering applications.
This project also demonstrates a useful and potentially economical method for waste tire disposal
with use as fill material in the construction of medium vehicular weight roads.
Finally this demonstration project safely disposed of 125 tire bales which is approximately
12,500 waste tires buried, reducing land contamination while increasing land space available
especially at landfills. By the time the entire proposed road section is built with these tires, about
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
500 bales (50,000 waste tires) would have been disposed of in the construction at this one
location in Brownsville.
C.
Findings & Challenges
The major challenge is to enhance the performance of the tire bale road as much as possible to
that of the conventional road.
The effect of moisture, climate (season) and temperature on the deformation of the tire bales
needs to be evaluated as these environmental factors may influence the deflection cell
performance.
The response of the sensors to varying heavy loads over time should also be observed. This
would serve as a guideline to estimate the road performance and serviceability for the long term
performance.
This project was conducted with respect to dead loads acting directly on the sensor. The behavior
of the road with moving traffic should be observed to see how the road responds. This data
should help in further developing specific design recommendations and guidelines on the use of
tire bales for engineering applications.
Finally, the performance (deflection) could be potentially improved with high quality assurance
and quality control on tire bale road construction by conducting material and safety checks on
the bale bands, bale condition as at the time of use, proper alignment to prevent wire breakage
and adequate tire bale sand filling and compaction.
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
VI. PHOTO RECORD
2012
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012
Waste tire roadbed construction evaluation, Final Report
2012