Asphalt/bitumen roller

There is some great material in this thread.
Roderick

Melbourne’s streets bumper to bumper, but in a good way
Herald Sun November 19, 2019
Five central Melbourne streets are being resurfaced in recycled car bumper bars, reusing the plastic material that would otherwise be sent to landfill.
Citywide North Melbourne Asphalt Plant general manager Darryl Byrne with a sample of the mix. Picture: Nicole Cleary
Next time you hear that the traffic is bumper-to-bumper, it might actually be the road you’re driving on.
Five central Melbourne streets are being resurfaced in recycled car bumper bars, reusing the plastic material that otherwise would be sent to landfill.
The hard plastic is broken down and added to an asphalt mix in a process perfected at Citywide’s North Melbourne Plant.
The first section of road resurfaced was Flinders St, between Exhibition and Spring streets.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp. Picture Jay Town
And in recent days, parts of Anderson Street in South Yarra and Alexandra Ave in South Yarra were relaid.
And next year, two sections of Spring St will also be resurfaced with the new material.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the surface on these streets would look the same as any other.
“The difference is that using plastic in the asphalt creates demand for recycled products,” Cr Capp said.
“We collect 11,000 tonnes of residential recycling each year. Using a mix of plastic to resurface our streets is one way we can support the circular economy and reduce landfill.”
The plastic waste is sourced from around the metropolitan area.
The trial is an initiative by the city council and its subsidiary Citywide.
The reuse of plastics comes after the statewide crisis when thousands of tonnes of recyclable material having to be dumped in landfill.
Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood said the trial was an important step towards building a circular economy.
“The City of Melbourne uses 10,000 tonnes of asphalt annually and we resurfaced 8km of road last year.
“This trial will help us understand whether it’s possible to use recycled plastic in more of our major projects,” Cr Wood said.
“This is an example of how we can work towards building a circular economy.
“By using recycled plastic and other recycled materials on our roads we’re creating more sustainable infrastructure and showing there are local markets for recycled materials.”
< www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbo...1f8d203f75475b4d50c2 >
* Nothing new. "An innovative asphalt mix that includes recycled plastic bags, glass bottles and toner from old printer cartridges is performing well a year after it was laid on Old Princes Highway, Engadine."
www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/643058...old-princes-highway/
I can remember reading quite some time ago about using old tires and ground glass in the mix.
I hope they do better then they did with one of our local roads. They removed all the asphalt, no doubt to be recycled, and replaced it with a paper thin layer that started breaking up within a couple of weeks. "Oh, that was only a sealing quote, we come back in six months to lay the final coat." What BS, they did not come back in six months and by the time they did more work was required.
* A good story, however other asphalt plants are doing the same or similar blending and on a far larger scale.
* Given that most cars are now fuel injected and far more likely to catch fire due to the high pressure fuel pump, does the plastic in the bitumen make it more flammable? [No].
* It seems that lithium batteries are more of a fire risk than fuel injection.

191119Tu-Melbourne'HeraldSun'-road.surface-ss.jpg

City of Melbourne must have great roads. Of the hundreds of kilometres they managed to resurface 8 kilometres for the year. I could have done that with a shovel and wheelbarrow - surely a misprint?

Lang

If they used 10,000 tons to resurface 8klm of road that's 1,250 tons per K.

If the rad was 6 metres wide it would have about 200kg per square metre of new top.

8 kilometres might be correct if he was only talking about the City of Melbourne Council area and not Greater Melbourne. Like all capital cities except Brisbane it is made up of several independent adjoining council areas with their own mayors. Melbourne is actually smaller in area than most small country towns in Australia.

This is Melbourne . If your suburb is not on here you live some place else!


This is the whole picture for Greater Melbourne and the various council areas. Bureaucracy is thriving in Victoria!

The article was certainly about City of Melbourne, not greater Melbourne.
The original city took over all of former separate Hotham (North Melbourne), then parts of Port Melbourne and South Melbourne, including a strip along St Kilda Rd (part of Prahran?).

Roderick

There are a few 'test strips' around the place I've found with mixing all sorts of things into hot mix. Cork was the strangest and was used for a stretch of road that gets or got high rainfll. Crushed concrete and bull dust has also been used.I can't remeber what they used in the sealed road section on the Lakes Way at Failford but the signs are still up and the surface after many years now has a couple of pathes. The other are was on the highway just South of Hetherbrae, again the signs might still be there but the length of hotmix is still able to be seen to be different than the rst.

Glenferrie Rd, Malvern (Melbourne, Vic.): M&MTB's McDonald Imperial road roller, during the relaying of the entry to Malvern Depot. Sun.7.9.1969. (Roderick Smith)
The builders plate was unreadable in the earlier photo, but the maker was identified.
I am deducing Imperial from the references: the script looked like Special on the full-size scan.
See:
collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/403846
www.oldengine.org/members/kennedy/mcdonald/mcdonald.htm
www.museum.gympiegoldmuseum.com.au/files...OLD-ROAD-ROLLER-.pdf

Roderick

Notice the roller has a vacuum brake hand controll....probably for the crib trailer they usually towed.......the 8 ton usually had an IH 264 diesel ,or a IH petrol/kero ,though a choice of import motors was also available,common being Ford and Perkins.

The MMTB rollers of th@ era had the rear drive wheels made narrower by cutting the wheel flange
probly to do to fit B tween tram rail and kerb etc
cya

The Mc Donalds had a plunger oil pump in the back end,and at the rear of the drivers platform a rod went up and down inside a small steel guard....easily seen from behind the roller......anyhoo ,Young Daves eldest son sees the plunger moving up and down,and sticks his finger in the housing.......didnt stop the plunger ,but did squash the finger flat.Must have hurt a bit,I reckon....took the kid about 10 seconds to realize it .