Property owners, construction companies, and businesses are always looking to save money and one way of doing this is with recycling. One material that is great for this function is concrete because it can be used as additional aggregate in freshly mixed concrete, as an underlay for road surfaces or as the surface cover for driveways or limited use roads. Of course, the quality of the concrete is important and there are two basic types. The first is a recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) which can be a mixture of concrete, brick or other materials. In other words, RCA is not as clean as the alternative. Certain projects require higher quality materials and this is where Crushed Concrete aggregate (CCA) is used. This is mostly because CCA is a mix of old concrete and fresh concrete returned from a job site.
Concrete aggregate is a great solution for homes and businesses in those rural areas around Houston. Uncovered driveways never last long because of moisture and loosely packed soil. Rain and severe storms can wash away the driveway and create ruts and potholes. There are various materials such as shell or gravel that can be placed on the road surface, but some of them can be pretty expensive. Using RCA or CCA is much more affordable and eliminates the problem of disposing of old concrete. Local landfills cannot deal with this stuff because it does not easily degrade, but crushing it makes the material useful again. In fact, many buildings and roads are now using Crushed Concrete mixtures that meet or exceed current building regulations.
Some care is required when businesses recycle concrete because of an alkali-silica reaction. This issue can destroy older concrete because the growing silica gel causes the concrete to expand. This problem is more common with RCA grade materials because the CCA version tends to use more recent concrete. Of course, this may not be a major issue when the recycled material is used in rural areas because the degraded concrete will settle below any other aggregate. However, using RCA may force the owner to add extra material to the road surface occasionally when the surface becomes too thin. Get more information from the experts at Teague’s Asphalt. You can connect with them on Facebook for more updates!
