Performance Monitoring of Embankments Containing Tire Chips: Case Study
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 21, Issue 3
Abstract
Tire chips (or shredded tires) have been successfully used as a filler material in a number of embankments, but this use has also led to problems such as spontaneous combustion, settlement, and so on. To ensure proper construction and to avoid such problems, the Texas Department of Transportation sponsored a study to monitor the performance of embankments constructed of tire shred fill material in El Paso, Texas. Three embankments, consisting of (1) a mixture of soil and shredded tires; (2) shredded tires wrapped in a geotextile; and (3) a reference embankment built with conventional soil, were instrumented and monitored. The performance of the embankments in terms of vertical settlement, temperature change, and air and water constituency changes were monitored. The performance of these three embankments has shown that there is little potential for environmental impacts in a climate like that of El Paso, and that the construction techniques employed limited the settlements in comparison with some previous experiences.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers would like to give their sincere appreciation to Tomas Saenz and Gus Sanchez of the TxDOT El Paso District for their ever-present support. We would also like to thank David Head and Mark McLelland, the past and present project coordinators, respectively, for their constructive advice. The collaboration with the staff of J.D. Abrams, especially Mike Brown, Francisco Montes, and Edgar Carrasco, has been instrumental to the progress of this project.
References
Ahmed, I., and Lovell, C. W. (1993). “Rubber soils as lightweight geomaterials.” Transportation Research Record. 1422, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 61–70.
American Recycler. (2002). “Texas recycled more tires than it generated.” ⟨http://www.americanrecycler.com/apr03/04texas03.html⟩, (July 19, 2004).
Blackman, A., and Palma, A. (2002). “Scrap tires in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso: Ranking the risks.” Discussion paper 02-46. Resources for the future, Washington, D.C., ⟨http://www.rff.org⟩ (June 4, 2004).
Bosscher, P. J., Edil, T. B., and Eldin, N. N. (1992). “Construction and performance of a shredded waste tire test embankment.” Transportation Research Record. 1345, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 44–52.
Digitilt DataMate and DMM Software 50310999. (1996). Slope Indicator Company, Bothell, Wash.
Downs, L. A., Humphrey, D. N., Katz, L. E., and Rock, C. A. (1996). “Water quality effects of using tire shreds below the groundwater table.” Technical Services Division, Maine Dept. of Transportation, Augusta, Maine.
Humphrey, D. N. (1998). “Highway applications of tire shreds.” New England Transportation Consortium Rep., September.
Humphrey, D. N., Katz, L. E., and Michael, B. (1997). “Water quality effects of tire chip fills placed above the groundwater table.” Proc., 1997 Symp. on Testing Soil Mixed with Waste or Recycled Materials, ASTM, West Conshohocken, Pa.
Humphrey, D. N., Whetten, N., Weaver, J., Recker, K., and Cosgrove, T. A. (1998). “Tire shreds as lightweight fill for embankments and retaining walls.” Geotechnical special publication: Recycled materials in geotechnical applications, ASCE, Reston, Va., 51–65.
Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). (2000). “Long-term funding alternatives’ for the scrap tire abatement program.” Rep. to the Joint Standing Committee on Natural Resources, ⟨http://www.state.me.us/dep/rwm/solidwaste/pdf/tireRpt.pdf⟩ (July 19, 2004).
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). (1990). “A report on the environmental study of the use of shredded waste tires for roadway subgrade support.” Twin City Corporation, St. Paul. Minn.
Nightingale, D. E. B., and Green, W. P. (1997). “An unsolved riddle: Tire chips, two roadbeds, and spontaneous reactions.” Testing soil mixed with waste or recycled materials, ASTM STP 1275, ASTM, West Conshohocken, Pa.
“OM-300 portable datalogger—User’s guide.” (1998). Omega Engineering, Inc., Stamford, Conn.
Sengupta, S., and Miller, H. J. (1999). “Preliminary investigation of tire shreds for use in residential subsurface leaching field systems.” Chelsea Center for Recycling and Economic Development, Technical Research Program, Univ. of Massachusetts, Lowell, Mass.
Tatlisoz, N., Edil, T. B., Benson, C. H., Park, J. K., and Kim, J. Y. (1996). “Review of environmental suitability of scrap tires.” Environmental Geotechnics Rep. No. 96-7, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.
Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ). (1999). “Cooperative efforts to collect and recycle scrap tires in El Paso.” Waste tire recycling program, ⟨http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/permitting/registration/tire's/elp_road.pdf⟩ (Feb. 12, 2007).
Velazco, D., Rashid, M. H., Tandon, V., Nazarian, S., Picornell, M., and Ashur, S. (2002). “Design and installation of instrumentation for monitoring performance of tire chip embankments.” Rep. No. TX-02 4930-1F, Center for Highway Materials Research, El Paso, Tex.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 21 • Issue 3 • June 2007
Pages: 207 - 214
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 9, 2003
Accepted: Jan 11, 2005
Published online: Jun 1, 2007
Published in print: Jun 2007
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.