Diseño de pavimento modificado con la adición de plástico reciclado para ciclovías

Abstract

On recent years, Cuenca – Ecuador showed substantial increases in its populations and motor vehicles count, negatively leading towards increments on environmental pollution and emissions; because of that, and under the purpose of seeking for a sustainable city, local transportation agencies are working hard with the aim of improving its mobility planning and management for all transportation modes, including bicycles. Consequently, an important part of this strategy involves the design and implementation of a significant bikeway network throughout the city, however, the implementation of this bikeway network may represent environmental pollution itself if constructed with traditional flexible pavements. To avoid this potential problem, the objective of this paper is to present an alternative flexible pavement design that is more sustainable by incorporating recycled plastic in the mixture, and at the same time, maintaining the required performance. This research develops the design of a modified asphalt incorporating in the mixture crushed PET plastic that otherwise will become waste. This alternative asphalt will comply with construction codes for overlay mixes that will be placed on defined cycle paths and public spaces in Cuenca city. The design process involves Marshall, abrasion, VA, flow and stability tests over different mixes (with eight different PET plastic percentages) following Spanish standards to analyze its performance. Finally, life cycle assessment (LCA) is also performed to define improvements from a sustainable perspective.