Tire-Derived Aggregate: A Civil Engineering Win-Win for Waste Reduction, Re-Use, and Roadway Repair

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

Santa Barbara County Public Works partnered with the CalRecycle Tire-Derived Aggregate (TDA) program to reconstruct a failed roadway embankment using recycled tires for the Ortega Ridge Road Slide Repair project, restoring an unsafe road and diverting over 80,000 tires from California’s landfills in the form of (TDA) fill.

Ongoing settlement resulted in cracks growing up to six inches wide and deep.  In 2015, the county closed the roadway.  At that time, more than 30 inches of asphalt had been placed on the roadway over the years.  This Project combined the use of TDA and Mechanically Stabilized Earth elements, dubbed “MSTDA”.  Using this innovative combination, the county streamlined design and construction, reduced environmental impacts, created a smaller construction footprint, and realized cost savings.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Joaquin Wright is a Sustainable Resource Engineer and Tire Derived Aggregate (TDA) specialist for GHD Inc.  He has worked actively with TDA since 2000.  He obtained his BS in Environmental Resource Engineering from Humboldt State University (HSU).  He is a credentialed Sustainability Professional with the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), and has extensive experience in the area of Landfill Design, Environmental Remediation, as well as Recycled Material Evaluation for use in civil engineering applications.  His experience with recycled materials research in California includes TDA, waste Carpet, and waste mattress components.  Joaquin has managed and authored numerous recycled material evaluations, white papers, research projects, pilot studies, and outreach efforts funded by CalRecycle, CARE and the MRC. 

Mr. Wright has been an adjunct professor at HSU teaching Solid Waste Design and is currently an active member of the US Scrap Tire Work Group and is the current Civil Engineering Committee Chair as well as the technical contact for ASTM D6270-20, “Standard Practice for Use of Scrap Tires in Civil Engineering Applications.”

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23rd, 2021, 12:00-1:00PM US PST