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Roadway replacement was needed on a major portion of busy Interstate 80
from Auburn to Colfax, north of Sacramento. Traffic on this segment of
I-80 is moderate to heavy with a large volume of trucks; the terrain
varies from valleys to mountains. Conventional replacement would have
required removing existing asphalt concrete and bringing in new hot mix
asphalt, which would have caused heavy traffic congestion, high fuel
consumption and vehicle emissions. Instead, the Department of
Transportation chose a technology which used 100 percent of the existing
in-place asphalt concrete in a cold foam recycling process.
The work was completed in a single pass equipment train, allowing for the
free flow of traffic through the construction zone. The project is
conservatively estimated to have saved 30,000 gallons of fuel (enough to
fill 1.5 average swimming pools); 230,000 construction truck miles (enough
to circle the earth 9 times); 112,000 tons of aggregate base (enough to
fill 96 2,000-square-foot houses with rock); and more than 7,900 pounds of
Nitrogen Oxides emissions. A first of its kind in the United States, the
Auburn project will potentially save many millions of tons of materials
and miles traveled and will continue to have a significant impact on
emissions levels and construction.
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