Palomino Road Re-Build Using Shredded Tires

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

Palomino Road in Santa Barbera County, California was constructed to access the privately developed subdivision approved for construction during the mid to late 1950s. The road was developed privately, and the County only obtained a maintenance easement in 1963. Cracking of the asphalt concrete pavement has been ongoing for the last 25 years, with subsequent failure of the soil beneath the road. This pavement has been replaced twice within that time, and the construction wne tos far as to include a sub-drain constructed in 1998 to intercept potential water egress areas, but even this had little, if any effect. Further, a wildfire burned through the neighborhood in May 2009. This left the roadway even further damaged by the heavy equipment that was necessary to fight the fire and the demolitions of damaged structures by contractors. During the fall of 2009, one travel lane was even closed due to the severity of the failure. This program describes the use of recycled shredded automobile tires to repair Palomino Road during the summer of 2010. Palomino Road was rebuilt for a distance of 400 feet, 10 feet in width, by 6 feet in depth. Evacuation of the roadway allowed for the replacement of sub-grade earthen materials with shredded tires. The use of recycled shredded tires in the fill saved $28,000 in material costs for the County, and other benefits of the program include a lighter fill in the unstable hillside as well as an ease of drainage from the fill.