Road Resurfacing Focuses on Preserving Roads & Environment
May 22, 2009 - County of Rockland Press Release
At County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef’s direction, the County’s Highway Department has initiated and implemented a three-phase green road program for the past eight years. The program addresses the maintenance, repair and restoration of the County road system using environmentally friendly, “green” processes. All roads are evaluated and analyzed on an annual basis and the technique required for that road is established every spring, said County Highway Superintendent Charles Vezzetti.
The three techniques recycle the existing pavement and at the same time reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 90-percent per mile of roadway in comparison to conventional hot mix overlay, as well as reduce costs by 75-percent over standard resurfacing techniques. Not only are these techniques energy efficient, they reduce the County’s cost per mile by approximately 50-percent.
Vanderhoef was also honored for his work in sponsoring and signing into law three significant pieces of legislation that preserve air quality. The laws included an anti-idling law that prohibits vehicles from running for more than three minutes at a time; a law requiring that all eligible County diesel vehicles be equipped with an engine certified to the applicable US EPA standard for particulate matter or be equipped with special retrofits that reduce dangerous emissions, and that all vehicles in the County diesel fleet use ultra-low sulfur fuel in order to improve the quality of the air we breathe. It is also Vanderhoef’s goal, mandated by law, that the County fleet purchase only hybrid or alternate-fuel vehicles for its light- and medium-duty fleet by the year 2010.
The County continues to be a leader in addressing environmental concerns while providing safe roadways as environmental road resurfacing and construction processes evolve, Vezzetti said.
“With all aspects of road maintenance considered, both winter and summer operations, Rockland County’s roads are looking greener on a daily basis,” said Vezzetti. “When motorists drive in Rockland, they may see blacktop, but we see ‘green’ roads.”
The three-phase approach to the road maintenance program includes:
• standard 2” overlay, which is applied where required after milling in order to preserve curb reveal and re-establish the crown of the road. The millings derived from this process are reused and recycled by the Highway Department for shoulder repair and other highway improvements.
• “Hot-in-place” recycling, which is followed by either a quick set slurry or micro surfacing.
• Surface Treatment Program, which can be used with "hot-in-place" recycling when required. The surface treatment program commonly referred to as chip sealing is used primarily on those roads that have less traffic, and in particular, on those County roads that the local municipality has designated as historic. These roads require the use of historically correct resurfacing techniques whenever possible.
Over the past five years, the County Highway Department has recycled over 22-million pounds of asphalt annually, and estimates that between 90 - 100,000 tons have been recycled since the beginning of the program, saving taxpayers approximately a million dollars a year.
The Highway Department is currently reviewing the possibility of incorporating permeable pavements into the road reconstruction capital projects, combined with the County’s environmentally sensitive approach to winter maintenance by reducing the use of chemicals whenever possible without jeopardizing driver safety. During the winter months, the County has been testing green patch, a purportedly environmentally superior patching material.
Download the complete press release here
At County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef’s direction, the County’s Highway Department has initiated and implemented a three-phase green road program for the past eight years. The program addresses the maintenance, repair and restoration of the County road system using environmentally friendly, “green” processes. All roads are evaluated and analyzed on an annual basis and the technique required for that road is established every spring, said County Highway Superintendent Charles Vezzetti.
The three techniques recycle the existing pavement and at the same time reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 90-percent per mile of roadway in comparison to conventional hot mix overlay, as well as reduce costs by 75-percent over standard resurfacing techniques. Not only are these techniques energy efficient, they reduce the County’s cost per mile by approximately 50-percent.
Vanderhoef was also honored for his work in sponsoring and signing into law three significant pieces of legislation that preserve air quality. The laws included an anti-idling law that prohibits vehicles from running for more than three minutes at a time; a law requiring that all eligible County diesel vehicles be equipped with an engine certified to the applicable US EPA standard for particulate matter or be equipped with special retrofits that reduce dangerous emissions, and that all vehicles in the County diesel fleet use ultra-low sulfur fuel in order to improve the quality of the air we breathe. It is also Vanderhoef’s goal, mandated by law, that the County fleet purchase only hybrid or alternate-fuel vehicles for its light- and medium-duty fleet by the year 2010.
The County continues to be a leader in addressing environmental concerns while providing safe roadways as environmental road resurfacing and construction processes evolve, Vezzetti said.
“With all aspects of road maintenance considered, both winter and summer operations, Rockland County’s roads are looking greener on a daily basis,” said Vezzetti. “When motorists drive in Rockland, they may see blacktop, but we see ‘green’ roads.”
The three-phase approach to the road maintenance program includes:
• standard 2” overlay, which is applied where required after milling in order to preserve curb reveal and re-establish the crown of the road. The millings derived from this process are reused and recycled by the Highway Department for shoulder repair and other highway improvements.
• “Hot-in-place” recycling, which is followed by either a quick set slurry or micro surfacing.
• Surface Treatment Program, which can be used with "hot-in-place" recycling when required. The surface treatment program commonly referred to as chip sealing is used primarily on those roads that have less traffic, and in particular, on those County roads that the local municipality has designated as historic. These roads require the use of historically correct resurfacing techniques whenever possible.
Over the past five years, the County Highway Department has recycled over 22-million pounds of asphalt annually, and estimates that between 90 - 100,000 tons have been recycled since the beginning of the program, saving taxpayers approximately a million dollars a year.
The Highway Department is currently reviewing the possibility of incorporating permeable pavements into the road reconstruction capital projects, combined with the County’s environmentally sensitive approach to winter maintenance by reducing the use of chemicals whenever possible without jeopardizing driver safety. During the winter months, the County has been testing green patch, a purportedly environmentally superior patching material.
Download the complete press release here
