Use of aggregates produced from marble quarry waste in asphalt pavements

`More than 95% of asphalt pavement materials (by weight) consist of aggregates. The highway and construction industries consume a huge amount of aggregates annually causing considerable energy and environmental losses. The aggregates are usually produced from neighborhood aggregate quarries or from natural aggregate sources. As a result of the increasing demands for new aggregate quarries, the general texture of earth's surface has been steadily deteriorating, causing environmental concerns. The use of marble wastes from marble quarries as aggregates might help meet the increasing demands and slow down any detrimental effects on the environment. In this study, recycled aggregates produced from homogeneous marble and andesite quarry wastes in Afyonkarahisar-Iscehisar region were compared to two other aggregate specimens currently used in Afyonkarahisar city asphalt pavements. Los Angeles abrasion, aggregate impact value, freezing and thawing, flakiness index and Marshall stability flow tests were carried out on the aggregate specimens. The test results indicate that the physical properties of the aggregates are within specified limits and these waste materials can potentially be used as aggregates in light to medium trafficked asphalt pavement binder layers. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.