Never before has red asphalt been laid in the Netherlands with such a high percentage of recycled asphalt. In the weekend of April 30th, Eindhoven received the scoop with two lanes of red asphalt. The sustainable mixture is produced with green gas. It was delivered and processed under CE certification. With this product, KWS distinguishes itself on the Dutch market.
Reduction of primary raw materials and emissions
Due to the high percentage of recycled asphalt, less primary raw materials and less color pigment are needed. This makes it a high-grade sustainable mixture of equivalent quality to the normal red Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) and has the same life span. In the production of standard red SMA, emissions are 156 kg CO2 per tonne, whereas with recycled red SMA with 40% recycled asphalt, this is reduced to 92.7 kg. This also reduces the EQI value (Environmental Cost Indicator) by 41%.
Reuse of current screed
KWS has horizontally recycled the old top layer of red asphalt. This means that it was milled on site and after minimal processing, 40% of it was reused in the new overlay of the same road. This percentage is very high for a red top layer, because according to the legal, technical and administrative requirement in ground, road and hydraulic engineering (the RAW specifications system) no recycled asphalt may be used in SMA. The municipality of Eindhoven dropped this requirement and relied on the innovative possibilities of KWS, with which experience was gained in an earlier project. On the busiest connecting road between the A2 and the A50, the municipality of Eindhoven also applied a sustainable asphalt mixture from KWS last year. On the Insulindelaan in 2021, the top layer was replaced by black SMA with 50% recycled asphalt.
Special sustainable project: combination with black recycled asphalt
The project was awarded to KWS by the municipality of Eindhoven precisely because of the innovative asphalt mixes that KWS had included in its bid. The Hurkestraat has a black middle lane in addition to the red lanes. This lane was also milled and replaced with an SMA mixture with 50% recycled asphalt developed by KWS. In the production of standard black SMA, the emissions are 76.2 kg CO2 per ton, while with recycled black SMA with 50% recycled asphalt this is reduced to 58.8 kg. This reduces the EQI value by 27%. This reduction is in addition to that of the red asphalt.