Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-11-2026
Department
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
Abstract
The incorporation of crumb rubber derived from waste tires in asphalt pavements has gained increasing attention as a strategy to enhance performance while reducing environmental impacts, particularly in cold regions such as the Midwestern United States, where pavements are subjected to severe thermal stresses and freeze–thaw cycles. Despite the numerous performance benefits observed in previous laboratory-scale studies, field demonstrations can play a critical role in validating the use of recycled waste tires as asphalt additives. This study examines the performance benefits and environmental impacts of incorporating recycled tire rubber into asphalt mixtures via a dry modification process for cold-climate applications. Building on these findings, this paper is based on a full-scale field demonstration of a dry-process rubber-modified asphalt pavement constructed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Performance testing was conducted at both the binder and mixture levels, and field cores were collected during the construction of field sections. To complement the performance evaluation, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to quantify the environmental impacts of rubber-modified asphalt and conventional asphalt. The results indicate that successful rubber incorporation, combined with improved low-, intermediate-, and high-temperature performance, enhances long-term durability compared with control sections. Moreover, despite slightly higher initial environmental impacts associated with rubber incorporation, improved durability and reduced maintenance frequency can lead to lower life-cycle impacts over the long term. The findings highlight the potential of rubber-modified asphalt as a sustainable, resilient solution for cold-region pavements, offering practical insights for agencies seeking to balance performance and environmental impacts in future infrastructure design.
Publication Title
Infrastructures
Recommended Citation
Mohammadi, S.,
Jin, D.,
Wu, M.,
Liu, Z.,
&
You, Z.
(2026).
Sustainable Surface Treatments Using Dry-Process Rubber-Modified Asphalt in Cold Regions: A Laboratory, Field, and LCA Study.
Infrastructures,
11(6).
http://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures11060199
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/2748
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
Copyright: © 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures11060199