“The recycling and reclaiming industry has grown over the past few years,” says Don Matthews, P.E., chairman of ARRA’s Committee on Research and Education, who is also manager, Re-New Pavement Division, and director of research and development, Pavement Recycling Systems, Mira Loma, Calif.

The new center will help the industry maintain high standards. “ARRA has been very active in the establishment of the Pavement Recycling and Reclaiming Center,” Matthews says, “the ultimate purpose of which is to provide pavement contractors, design professionals and public agencies such as DOTs, cities and counties with the knowledge and tools necessary to use pavement recycling and reclaiming as a feasible and competitive alternative to traditional pavement maintenance and rehabilitation strategies.”

The center, he says, is the first in the United States, and possibly the world, to focus specifically on pavement recycling and reclaiming.

Goals of the center include serving as a champion for, and facilitator of, the successful implementation of pavement recycling and reclaiming strategies by public agencies through the development of standards, specifications and technical guidelines. It plans to act as a credible third party for public agencies and industry. It will provide technical assistance, training and certification programs to public agencies and industry. And it will disseminate information relative to pavement recycling and reclaiming in the form of reports, presentations, technical sheets and newsletters.

Tasks for the PR2C include development and maintaining of a website for the center that will be used to disseminate information on pavement recycling and reclaiming strategies, the center’s activities, newsletters, reports and technical sheets.

It plans to develop and maintain a database of pavement recycling projects’ construction and performance. The information will include project location, limits, traffic, environment and pavement condition before and after recycling, materials testing results during and after construction, and other pertinent information. The data will be used in support of the center’s research activities.

PR2C intends to develop and maintain a library of reports, technical papers, presentations, photographs and videos related to pavement recycling and reclaiming. The library will be made available online on the center’s website.

It will provide technical support (via a help desk) to agencies and contractors who register their projects with the PR2C, engage in externally-funded research in pavement recycling and reclaiming, and promote effective pavement recycling/reclaiming practices and technologies both within the United States and internationally.

At this time, the center is led by Dr. Dragos Andrei, P.E., associate professor and Pavement Recycling Systems Fellow in the Civil Engineering Department at Cal Poly Pomona. A search is underway for a permanent executive director. It was anticipated that the center’s website would go live in January 2011, but was not available when this issue went to press.

New Preservation Alliance

Also, in late 2010, taking a page from the collaboration of three asphalt industry associations that formed the Asphalt Pavement Alliance, after more than a decade of working together the boards of the Asphalt Emulsion Manufacturers Association, the Asphalt Recycling and Reclaiming Association and the International Slurry Surfacing Association have agreed to launch a new Pavement Preservation and Recycling Alliance (PPRA).

PPRA will not be an organization, or a separate entity, and AEMA, ARRA and ISSA will continue to exist as they do today. PPRA is more a formal recognition of an agreement to work together, more efficiently, to cooperatively represent and promote the technologies, processes and applications currently represented and promoted individually by AEMA, ARRA and ISSA.

For several years, AEMA, ARRA and ISSA have conducted a joint annual meeting. In 2010, they published a collective newsletter. PPRA will be an extension of those types of cooperative programs. It is well understood the three groups participate in many of the same activities, such as workshops, seminars, newsletters, certain trade shows and more. The alliance concept will allow the three to more formally combine forces effectively, efficiently and economically, and to show a greater return on investment to its members, as it has done with its annual meeting.