BUSINESS
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one to our fleet,” she explains. “The recycler
is designed to reuse as much of the existing
base as possible — it is like a blender on
wheels — and this has obvious financial
and environmental benefits. Instead of
transporting and disposing of the milled
material, on projects where a recycler is
used, they try to reuse as much of it as they
can. So, it is opening up new opportunities
for us.”
The operations manager at RMS, Brian
Manganyi, explains that the chip-and-spray
applications for which the recycler is so
well suited, are a cheaper, faster alternative
to resurfacing for asphalt and concrete
roads, and one that reuses the existing base
materials. The recycler lifts up the material
and mixes it with water and bitumen
emulsion, depending on the application,
before laying it back down. In addition to
the cost advantage, this offers additional
environmental benefits, as well as speeding
up project operations.
When using a recycler, the aim is to
reuse the existing base material and, where
possible, also the asphalt, along with a
mixture of water, cement and bitumen
emulsion, with the exact ratios determined
by the project, rather than using completely
new materials. This mixture is then laid
down and compacted to create a new base,
with the top layer of asphalt being sprayed
over that base.
But rehabilitating exi