Abstract for presentation (Poster or Podium)
Highway Pavements
.jpg "Sin Mei Lim, PhD photo")
Sin Mei Lim, PhD
Research Fellow
National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Gengren Hao
Research Fellow
National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Meibo He, n/a
Research Fellow
National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Ghim Ping Ong, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Ghim Ping Ong, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Ghim Ping Ong, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
The global production of plastics waste has increased rapidly due to the prevalent consumer culture in modern societies. The disposal of single-use packaging products imposes a significant burden to the environment, with a substantial amount of this waste being ended up in landfills, leading to the pollution in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Consequently, there is a growing global interest in sustainable approaches that can reduce the need for landfills for plastic waste. This research therefore focuses on the utilization of recycled plastic waste in asphalt pavement, with a one-year field monitoring study conducted on four trial sections for Singapore urban arterial road (dense mix) and expressway (porous mix). The performance of waste plastic-modified trial sections was compared against their conventional control section. The study evaluated the international roughness index, rut depth, pavement condition index (PCI) and pavement surface roughness using tools such as the walking profiler following ASTM E950 and straight edge following ASTM E1703. Additionally, surface runoff samples were also collected from a pair of upstream and downstream sampling sites for each trial road to study the impact generated from the plastic road on the water environment. The findings of the study suggest that the performance of the trial sections with incorporation of waste plastic was comparable to the conventional control section, with no raise risks of heavy metals contamination, organic contamination and eutrophication in surface water environment.