Research from Michigan Technological University may help make Michigan’s roads more durable.
When Zhanping You began working at Michigan Technological University, he hoped to further develop an idea for how to use old tires. In the 2000s, some road projects tried to use small granulated tires in road mixtures. The practice was scrapped like the tires. But You knew it was the start of something larger.
Tires without a tread have very few uses. Often those tires end their journey at landfills or, worse yet, in fields or rivers. You, a research professor at Michigan Technological University, says while the treads may have worn down, old tires could be recycled and used to make roadways more durable. A major hurdle in the 2000’s to using rubber asphalt mixtures in road projects was the technology available for testing and development available to researchers…