Roads General Authority Starts Using Equipment That Recycles Road Layers On-Site, Reduces Maintenance Time by 40%

Riyadh, The Roads General Authority has started trial for an asphalt recycling machine, as part of the authority's endeavor to adopt the latest technologies in the road sector and encourage innovation. The authority said that through the full depth reclamation (FDR) equipment, which uses in-place recycling technology, asphalt layers and the underlying soil layers are ground directly on site, with the option to add materials such as cement and other stabilizers. This process helps create a stabilized base layer for the new asphalt surface, and enhances the structural capacity of the pavement layers. The authority highlighted several benefits of the FDR machine, including reducing costs by 40-70% compared to traditional maintenance methods, minimizing traffic disruption due to the machine's ability to restore light traffic movement on the same day, and being environment friendly through reducing carbon emissions associated with the extraction of new materials. The machine also conserves raw materials by more than 40%, contributing to the sustainability of materials; it can reuse up to 100% of the existing on-site items, which reduces the need to transfer materials to the site. The machine also reduces maintenance time by more than 40%. Earlier this year, the authority announced that it was introducing a machine that mills and resurfaces roads on site, as part of its efforts to expand the use of the latest equipment and technologies. This contributes to achieving the road sector's strategy that focuses on safety and quality in order to raise the Kingdom's road quality index globally and reduce the number of road fatalities to less than 5 per 100,000 people by 2030. Source: Saudi Press Agency