Use of porous pavement and porous concrete
Minneapolis is a partner in the Local Road Research Board and is a participant in the MN Road Study as a way of testing new paving materials.
The City has completed 5 projects so far with variable degrees of success. Examples include 54 th Street parking bays and Edgewater Park. Minneapolis will continue to partner with the Local Road Research Board on testing new paving materials.
Re-Use of crushed concrete for roadway base
• Minneapolis has reused concrete for aggregate base for roadway construction since 1977.
• Use of clean drain rock to aid stormwater.
• This reused concrete has been used as part of the roadway base for 100’s of miles of street repaving projects since 1977 and 3 million tons of concrete material has been recycled to date.
• When roads are excavated during reconstruction, original materials such as streetcar rails and re-bar are often under the surface. Minneapolis recycles this material through the City’s Solid Waste & Recycling Transfer Station.
• Minneapolis has recycled asphalt since 1997. When a street surface is milled off for resurfacing for renovation projects, the millings are put out to asphalt plants for recycling. The city then uses the reconditioned asphalt mix for paving.
• Minneapolis Transportation Maintenance & Repair Division is now using an asphalt recycler to take asphalt milling remnants and turn it into hot patch mix for pothole filling in the winter.
• Fly ash use, a waste product from coal plant production, is now used in the city’s Portland cement mix at 15%. Cement creates carbon dioxide so a reduction of cement used in the mix, reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released out into the environment.
• Topsoil for the replanting of boulevards as part of street reconstruction is produced via composted materials.
• Minneapolis construction debris is taken to the city’s transfer station for recycling.