Council recycles road materials to create better roads

Redland City Council is using recycled road materials to deliver better road conditions for the community.

Mayor Karen Williams said the re-use of profilings (the waste by-product collected when roads are resealed) offered a number of benefits to both Council and road users.

“Recycling the profilings and using them in place of gravel not only results in cost savings for Council, but also offers a high quality structural surface and reduces dust,” she said.

“Profilings are a mix of surface bitumen and asphalt and some of the gravel below which are removed as part of the road resealing process, and are reused as part of Council’s support of the circular economy, where materials and products are recirculated for as long as possible.

“They have been used to build Council roads on the Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI) for the past few years as part of the Green Seal program.

“We have also completed several big projects on the mainland, including Billiau Road in Mount Cotton and School of Arts Road in Redland Bay, which used thousands of cubic metres of profilings.”

The road profilings are screened and stored at Council’s quarry and then transported to sites as required.

Division 5 Councillor Mark Edwards said profilings had also been used for SMBI road maintenance for about the past two years.

“There is a need for continuous maintenance of unsealed gravel roads and roadside drains on the islands and Council’s road maintenance crews use road profilings – laying it, watering and rolling it to form a better surface,” Cr Edwards said.

“The profilings compact and hold better, reduce dust and have greater longevity than gravel alone.”