NAIT project test sites show promise after two years of traffic
When Jesse Kollmann (Civil Engineering Technology ’08) was given the chance by NAIT to choose a location for an experimental, more environmentally sustainable pavement, the Strathcona County capital projects supervisor steered straight toward a busy arterial road.
“You might as well trial it by fire,” he thought.
Or by tire. Kollmann’s pick, Lakeland Drive, is an east-west connector linking residential areas with business parks and highways in northern Sherwood Park. It sees more than 17,700 vehicles daily, accounting for some of the hamlet’s, and county’s, densest traffic, about 2% of it being commercial and large vehicles. Kollmann himself drives it to work.
“So far, so good,” he says. “Everybody's pretty surprised at how well it's performing.”
That is, most drivers probably haven’t noticed a difference on that nearly one-kilometre stretch since it was laid along the westbound lane in 2022. But the local landfill might have.
The new road is made using post-consumer, recycled plastic as part of an applied research project led by the polytechnic that, in a first for Alberta, has diverted the equivalent of 415,000 plastic bottles from the trash.
No worse for wear
The possibility of that kind of impact is what initially motivated Heartland Polymers to encourage the study that saw new pavement laid by McAsphalt Industries in not just Strathcona County but at Heartland’s own complex (also in the county), Sturgeon County, and Alexander First Nation by Alexander Asphalt and Concrete.
The work was part of Plastics Research in Action, a 10-year, $10-million research collaboration between Heartland Polymers and NAIT’s applied research department to advance the reuse and recycling of plastic. It investigated the potential of post-consumer plastic, rather than new, as is sometimes the case, as an ingredient in asphalt for roads and parking lots.
“Heartland Polymers believes that any percentage of plastic that we can incorporate into asphalt in Alberta [is] going to take a lot out of the landfill,” says Dr. Adetoyese Oyedun, who served as the project manager for NAIT Applied Research.
In this case, all that plastic contributed to a total of less than five kilometres of road, along with a 3,000-square-foot parking lot at Alexander.
The impact isn’t limited to volume; it encompasses quality, too. To ensure that plastic-infused asphalt could navigate a frigid Alberta winter, NAIT enlisted the expertise of Ontario-based GreenMantra Technologies. Together, they decided to use a type of plastic called polypropylene, which has been shown to withstand weathering conditions better than other types of plastic.
"Any percentage of plastic that we can incorporate into asphalt in Alberta [is] going to take a lot out of the landfill."
“We're not just … trying to throw plastics into asphalt,” says John Almey, GreenMantra technical development manager. “Our process upcycles it, creating new chemicals that integrate into the asphalt better than raw plastic would.”
Almey considers that result a “performance additive” that could lead to a better road overall. Lab work prior to field testing showed asphalt made with GreenMantra’s modified plastic to be stable, in that the components did not separate, and strong, in that it stood up well in a standard assessment for rutting.
For Oyedun, the definition of “better” is broad. He’s happy to report that the material is as good as conventional asphalt with respect to cracking, rutting and other deformities. But, just as importantly, he sees the project and its success to date as a path to sustainability.
That may be particularly true in Alberta, a province said to have so many roads that, laid end to end in a single lane, they’d reach to the moon.
“It could be one of the routes that we can use to take plastic out of the landfill,” Oyedun says.
Destination: Progress
Time, and kilometres, will tell – along with continued observation that Almey looks forward to.
“A lot of the projects that we’ve laid down haven't had that level of interest or testing through the years,” he says. For GreenMantra, that has validated new materials and solutions that the company brought to the project, and offers the promise of future insights.
“I'll be watching on Google Maps,” Almey says of test sites.
Kollmann will be watching, too, mostly through his own windshield. He has appreciated being involved in the study – and not just because it has meant a stretch of free asphalt for Sturgeon County. And he hopes others may also be able to benefit from the results as well.
Kollmann sees the project as progress in a field of construction where progress isn’t often a primary destination. Depending on the lifespan of the road, the results may represent a new way forward for those who build them and those who use them.
“It's good for the [construction] industry because it's introducing innovation,” says Kollmann. “And, at the end of the day, if it helps the environment as well, it’s a win-win.”
