WisDOT MAPSS - Preservation - Material Recycling - Protecting, maintaining and operating Wisconsin's transportation system efficiently by making sound investments that preserve and extend the life of our infrastructure, while protecting our natural environment.
Material Recycling - Protecting, maintaining and operating Wisconsin's transportation system efficiently by making sound investments that preserve and extend the life of our infrastructure, while protecting our natural environment.The department strives to use recycled materials whenever possible in improvement projects. Our goal is to have 10% of newly produced materials replaced by recycled materials on construction projects each year and to continually strive to conserve resources, minimize waste and keep materials out of landfills.
WisDOT strives to make thoughtful, responsible investments in highways and bridges as part of the vision for providing a safe and efficient transportation system. This includes incorporating the use of recycled materials in improvement projects. Doing so preserves program resources and can in many cases create a positive environmental benefit. WisDOT’s recycled materials efforts help to prevent waste and create opportunities for savings. In the ten years WisDOT has tracked performance with this measure, more than 17 million tons of materials were reused on projects, creating a savings of over $250 million to benefit additional projects.
The department wants to encourage the use of recycled materials and has written project specifications to allow recycled materials in a sustainable way. Ultimately, the contractor makes the decision on the materials to use based on market conditions. The location, ease of processing, economy, fuel costs and landfill tipping fees affect the cost effectiveness and attractiveness of recycling.
The future of WisDOT construction contracts is shifting from prescriptive based to performance-based specifications. Prescriptive-based specifications specify the types of materials that are allowed to be used in construction, based on engineering principles. Performance-based specifications allow for use of any materials, within reason, as long as the materials meet performance criteria. In the asphalt industry, this is commonly referred to as “balanced mixture design.” In the concrete industry, this is commonly referred to as “performance engineered mixtures.” Performance based specifications will enable contractors and material suppliers to recycle more materials while still emphasizing performance. This is an ongoing initiative that is being implemented in WisDOT’s Standard Specifications for Highway and Structure Construction.