Update #3: Test results confirm innovative paving project on Newtonville Road can safely proceed

Whitby, Ontario – The Region of Durham’s third-party environmental engineering consultant, Malroz Engineering Inc., has completed the testing and verification process of the recycled materials used in the road base for the Newtonville Road Rehabilitation Pilot Project.

Newtonville Road (Regional Road 18) in the Municipality of Clarington was identified for an innovative project that uses recycled materials to rehabilitate part of the road. The Region voluntarily paused the paving work and retained Malroz to investigate non-glass material in the road base and assess for potential environmental impacts after a member of the public raised concerns. The verification process completed by Malroz included taking over 40 samples of the road base containing the recycled material and testing to determine if there was potential for the recycled material to leach hazardous substances into the environment.

Malroz has prepared a summary report with the test results. Malroz found that the road base consists primarily of sand and aggregate. The non-glass material made up a very small fraction of the recycled material incorporated in the project. Malroz’s findings are consistent with the amount of non-glass material that is expected in recycled glass. Processing of recycled glass cannot eliminate all non-glass material or odours (i.e. food residue on glass jars, paper labelling, plastics, ceramics and other small items mixed in the blue box). The laboratory testing of the samples collected by Malroz show that no contaminants were detected in the leachate testing and any potential leachate is non-toxic.  Odours disperse and are non-existent once the material is blended and graded through the road rehabilitation operations.

The Region has shared the report and test result findings with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, confirming that the road base containing the recycled materials met Ministry standards for leachate and were non-toxic. The Region will proceed with scheduling the paving of the road in the near future.

A copy of the environmental engineering consultant’s report can be found on the project page at durham.ca/NewtonvilleRoad. The report contains many photos of the site and samples collected, beginning on page 22.

Quick facts

• The Newtonville Road (Regional Road 18) Rehabilitation Pilot Project—a 3.6-kilometre stretch of roadway in the Municipality of Clarington—provided an innovative opportunity for road construction.
• Road work was to be split into two phases that would help assess and evaluate the performance of traditional and recycled materials.
  • Phase one was completed in fall 2021, recycling the existing road base and using other traditional materials.
  • Phase two was focused on the southerly section of the road and included recycled materials from blue box collections for a beneficial new use.
  • The goal of exploring the use of blue box materials in road rehabilitation projects is to reuse about 400 tonnes of recycled glass from blue box collections in the granular base, and approximately six tonnes of recycled plastics from blue box collections, and 4.5 tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres made from recycled plastics in the asphalt.
  • If successful, using recycled materials from blue box collections (Phase two) could help reduce the volume of aggregate materials mined and trucked in for road construction, while possibly increasing the strength, durability and overall pavement life cycle of the road network.

Quotes

“Malroz Engineering Inc. has completed their detailed analysis into the recycled materials being used for this project. The Newtonville Road Rehabilitation Pilot Project will continue as we work to schedule paving in the remainder of this construction season. This project was developed with sustainability in mind; we will continue to explore the beneficial use of recycled materials to find meaningful and innovative ways of using recycling materials as resources.”

-       John Presta, Commissioner of Works, Region of Durham

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Read this article on the Region of Durham website.