Description
The use of the Arizona recipe for producing bitumen-rubber (bitumen and crumb rubber in the wet process) has been used successfully in South Africa for almost 30 years. About 10 years ago this technology was transferred to China by a South African based company, and a number of projects were constructed. The objective of the paper is to document this experience to demonstrate that bitumen-rubber according to an acknowledged recipe has provided successful performance despite a general reticence by some Chinese clients to use bitumen-rubber as other approaches have not provided the success. The paper first presents the process employed in China,
and then provides the performance of a number of projects, some as old as 10 years. The fact that bitumen-rubber asphalt layers have performed exceptionally well for up to 10 years under heavy traffic and inclement weather has demonstrated that this technology has a future in China. This is in contrast to typical asphalt surfacings lasting up to 5 years under these conditions. Of particular interest is the successful use of 2 cm bitumen-rubber asphalt as an ultra-thin wearing course as well as 10 cm on bitumen-rubber asphalt as a base placed in one lift. Implementation of this technology will continue, and the roads already constructed will be monitored.
