FHWA recycling conference set for Indianapolis

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Thursday, August 2, 2012
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0 q) n3 R8 n# X) m$ v& cIndianapolis, IN – Federal Highway Administration Recycling Program manager Victor (Lee) Gallivan announced the speakers for the 2012 Industrial Materials Conference, to be held in Indianapolis November 28-29, 2012. FHWA is partnering with the non-­profit Industrial Resources Council to provide this forum for highway engineers to describe best practices in the use of high volume recycled materials in sustainable pavement systems. “DOTs and other project owners are increasingly focused on how to build and maintain pavement systems that are both environmentally and economically sustainable,” stated Gallivan. “Sustainable material choices can have a large positive impact on long-­term pavement performance as well as project costs because materials typically consume up to 60 percent of a project budget. FHWA is sponsoring the Industrial Materials Conference to help state and local project owners comply with FHWA’s recycling policy while increasing their overall sustainability footprint.” The Industrial Resources Council is a coalition of advocates for the reuse of industrial byproduct materials in the U.S. economy. IRC was incorporated in 2006 to provide a single point of contact for agencies such as FHWA. According to Michael Blumenthal, president of the IRC and a vice president of the Rubber Manufacturers Association, “More than 600 million tons of industrial byproducts are generated annually, an amount roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of virgin aggregates. Industrial byproduct materials have been used in highway construction for decades but have not been uniformly accepted by state highway agencies. The goal of this conference is to showcase case studies and best practices that highway engineers and contractors can adopt in support of their overall sustainability goals.” The 2012 Industrial Materials Conference will be co-­hosted by the Indiana Department of Transportation, with program support from the Recycled Materials Resource Center-­3G. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available.