Lennox Head’s latest road resurfacing projects are benefiting from leading edge recycling technology, converting waste to useful new life.
Lincoln Hill is the Surfacing Manager for the Lismore/Northern Rivers region with Downer Group, currently contracted to Ballina Shire Council. His expertise includes road resurfacing, potholes, driveways, car parks and highways; ‘Pretty much anything with asphalt, we’ll do it!’
His next big job will be resurfacing Pacific Parade, one of the busiest streets in Lennox, with the section from the Lennox Hotel to the surf club due to be upgraded next month. Mr Hill sat down with The Echo to talk about what’s involved.
Having recently worked on the improvements in the centre of Lennox village, he describes the final road surfacing as ‘the icing on the cake’, with increasing use of finely ground recycled glass making the road smoother, stronger and more sustainable.
‘Yes, what we’re doing is we’re removing the old surface, putting a waterproof membrane down, and then we’re going to resurface it with an asphalt product that we’re manufacturing out of our plants in Lismore that uses crushed glass from Lismore tip,’ explained Mr Hill.
‘The glass is from the buyback programs, where you go and put your glass and get ten cents. That’s processed by a local contractor. We purchase it and run it in the asphalt instead of using straight sand.’
The crushed glass is cleaned, heated and coated in bitumen. In terms of silicon content, Lincoln Hill says the product matches sand ‘pretty much exactly, but probably a little bit less moisture content and moisture absorption – so it’s a it’s a really good product.’
Saving sand
As well as removing glass from the waste stream, the process reduces reliance on building quality sand, which is running in short supply globally.
While the Lennox project is the first time Ballina Shire Council have used the recycled glass product, Downer have also been using it in pothole resurfacing works in recent months, and Richmond Valley Council are also trialling it.
Mr Hill says he hopes the new surface will be received positively by the infrastructure team at Ballina Council and the local community. ‘If all goes well, we’ll start running it as standard.’
He said about 400 tonnes of asphalt would be going into Pacific Parade, with a further 800 tonnes going into works at Bentinck Street in Ballina.
The Lennox work is expected to be all done in two days, currently scheduled to happen starting Wednesday 6 March.
While there will be some inconvenience for locals and visitors, with temporary detours in place at the time of the works, Mr Hill told The Echo the Pacific Parade project will be carefully managed to minimise disruptions.
More recycling opportunities
Lincoln Hill loves the local area, having moved here from Queensland, and says his crew is based in Lismore. ‘All the guys are local and the product manufactured locally, too.’
He’s excited about the possibilities of making the roads of the Northern Rivers stronger and more sustainable.
‘Yes, the crushed glass is the first of a big suite of products we want to bring in. If it’s received well, we’re going to start putting recycled plastic through the bitumen as well.
‘Also we can recycled printer cartridges, and soft plastics, and they’re pelletised. When we run that through it reduces the pure bitumen, because you’re supplementing it with with the recycled products. From there, the third piece of the puzzle is rubber, from tires. We package all three of them together,’ he explained.
‘Plus, whenever we rip up a road, we process those millings and we put that through the asphalt as well. We call that product Reconophalt. Downer are definitely ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability.’
Mr Hill says even more exciting opportunities for road surfacing are on the horizon, such as plant-based bitumens, which are already being trialled in New Zealand via a product called BioBind.
He says there’s great potential for use of recycled asphalt products in new subdivisions as well as resurfacing roads.
‘The goal is obviously, net zero,’ he said. ‘And with that, there’s options out there for us to run pretty close to 100 per cent recycled product.’
He said mix designs can be tailored to suit the technical road specifications in different jurisdictions, with extensive testing and sampling happening at every stage to ensure the recycled products are meeting or exceeding expectations.
Mr Hill wanted to pay tribute to the staff of Ballina Council for being open to innovative ideas for sustainable road resurfacing across the shire.
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