Update #2: Durham Region’s innovative paving project on Newtonville Road

Whitby, Ontario – The Region of Durham has retained a third-party environmental engineering consultant, Malroz Engineering Inc., to take samples of the recycled materials used in the road base for the Newtonville Road Rehabilitation Pilot Project, to ensure they meet the Region’s expectations as blue box materials.

Newtonville Road (Regional Road 18) in the Municipality of Clarington was identified for an innovative project that uses recycled materials to reconstruct part of the road. Work on the project was recently paused after a concern was raised by a local resident. This pause provided an opportunity for the Region to retain a third party to verify the content of recycled materials utilized in the granular base samples. The verification process will take time to allow a thorough review.

Although the paving of Phase two has been put on hold until the completion of the verification process, the contractor will remain on site to complete other aspects of the reconstruction project. This will help to ensure the road can be safely used during, and after, this third-party verification process.

More information can be found on the project page at durham.ca\NewtonvilleRoad.

Quick facts

• The Newtonville Road (Regional Road 18) Rehabilitation Pilot Project—a 3.6-kilometre stretch of roadway in the Municipality of Clarington—provided an innovative opportunity for road construction.
• Road work was to be split into two phases that would help assess and evaluate the performance of traditional and recycled materials.
  • Phase one was completed in fall 2021, recycling the existing road base and using other traditional materials.
  • Phase two was focused on the southerly section of the road and included recycled materials from blue box collections for a beneficial new use.
  • The goal of exploring the use of blue box materials in road reconstruction projects is to reuse about 400 tonnes of recycled glass from blue box collections in the granular base, and approximately six tonnes of recycled plastics from blue box collections, and 4.5 tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres made from recycled plastics in the asphalt.
  • If successful, using recycled materials from blue box collections (Phase two) could help reduce the volume of aggregate materials mined and trucked in for road construction, while possibly increasing the strength, durability and overall pavement life cycle of the road network.

Quotes

“We are taking the concerns brought forward on this project seriously, which is why we immediately paused the project and hired a third party to test the road materials. This is a pilot project that has a goal of looking for innovative ways to reuse recycled municipal material, while also protecting the environment. The Newtonville Road Rehabilitation Pilot Project is following our guiding principles to apply innovative approaches to Regional waste streams to manage them as resources, while also improving our environmental footprint.”

-       John Presta, Commissioner of Works, Region of Durham

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