Oh, the joys of winter. The ice, the snow! The de-icing, the plowing!  And (worse yet) the after-effects of cracks and potholes!

There are many ways to measure the eco-friendliness of various materials and processes.  For example, the amount of recycled and reused material employed might be one gauge.  Another commonly considered factor is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the material or processes.

Driveways are not always short and straight, especially in rural areas. Jeff Schmoeger’s driveway is approximately 800 feet long with a hilly slope, but this didn’t stop Wolf Paving from completing the residential paving project.

Moll Construction Inc. referred Wolf Paving to Schmoeger, after the construction company did the excavating to carve a pathway through the woods where the driveway was to be paved.

Wolf Paving is proud of the asphalt recycling we do.  We recycle 100% of the asphalt we remove from job sites, plus we accept recyclable material from other contractors.  But asphalt isn’t the only building and paving material that can be recycled.  Another material we focus on is concrete recycling and reuse. 

Why Recycle Concrete?

There was a time when the majority of used concrete was sent to a landfill.  Not only does it take up a large amount of landfill space, which is increasingly at a premium, but it costs money (as much as $0.25 per ton per mile) and resources to transport it and/or dispose of it (as high as $100 per ton).  Then more money and resources go toward creating all-new concrete.  These days, about 100 million tons of concrete is recycled annually.

The Base/Subgrade Stabilization Project

The project starts at 8:00 a.m. on the dot at Glen Hills Middle School. The semi truck carrying the load of cement powder rolls in. About half an hour later, the cement powder starts getting laid over the parking lot that has had the asphalt parking lot that was here pulverized. At this point, all that’s left is the pulverized asphalt and gravel bed mixture.  Now, every square foot gets an application of cement powder at a depth of around 1.5-2” depending on site conditions the day of work.

At 8:55 a.m., the pulverizer starts following behind the cement powder truck.  The pulverizer goes 14” into the existing base material, mixing the powder with the existing base material. Once the two are mixed together, the concrete powder starts reacting, hardening the stabilized base components. It is also at this time that the newly mixed stabilized base is tested for the right moisture. To check for this, a ball of the stabilized base is made and it should fall apart after being bounced in a hand.