Luma: Recycled road material will save money

THE government’s annual road maintenance expenditure can be kept within budget through a cost effective alternative, a Department of Works official says.
Department secretary Joel Luma said the alternative involved the recycling of road material already available and it was sustainable and cost effective for the government and travellers.
Luma made the comment after seeing the construction and repair of roads in and around the department’s headquarters last week.
He had temporarily halted work because he said the machinery required to carry out the sequence was unavailable.
The work later continued when the private contractor brought in what was required.
“The alternative method should be followed through in sequence so that it will not only cut down on unnecessary expenditure but will last for up to 15 years,” he said.
Luma said the recycling method began with a grader ripping up existing pavement, which was then turned into powder and re-laid on the road.
He said the stabiliser was set to the desired depth by spreading the powdery substance across the ripped surface and incorporated into the road pavement by recycling action to a depth of 150 to 200mm.
He said once the material had been recycled, the road was then watered and shaped using a grader to achieve the desired camber before it was completed.
He said that once the desired strength was achieved, the prepared surface was then sealed.
“At Works Department the existing road width is 5m. This required placement of the stabilising agent at an 18m interval, we did 500m of road for just a little over K500,000,” he said.