The construction and performance of a test embankment designed to evaluate the use of shredded waste tires as soil replacement in highway construction are described. The shredded tires offer the advantage of low unit weight and durability. The test embankment was designed and built to test key variables including chip size, confining overburden pressure, and use of chip-soil mixtures or chip-soil layering. The embankment consisted of sections, each 20 ft long, containing differing chip-soil compositions. The embankment was constructedparallel to the access road of a sanitary landfill and exposed to the heavy incoming truck traffic. Field data were collected to assessthe stability and deformation of the road surface, compaction of tire chips, and quality of tire chips leachate. Observations were madeto assess the potential difficulty of depositing and compacting layers of tire chips. Normal construction machinery can be used successfully with tire chips, though rubber tires can be punctured by the exposed wires at the edge of the chips. Vibratory or static compaction does not significantly induce compaction in tire chips. After an initial adjustment period, the overall road performance was similar to most gravel roads. Tire chips used as a replacement for fill undera road perform better when covered by 3-ft-thick soil caps comparedwith chips covered by only 1 ft of soil. Furthermore, the void ratio of the pure tire chips affects its stiffness. The leachate qualitydata indicate that shredded automobile tires show no likelihood of having adverse effects on groundwater quality. The findings support the use of properly confined tire chips as a light-weight fill in highway applications
Abstract