At the September Municipal Works Offices Association (MWOA) conference held in Bendigo, Victoria, delegates from councils and shires around Australia were talking about PolyCom Stabilising Aid.
Asset managers, engineers, works supervisors and more exchanged information and experiences about the positive results they achieved when using PolyCom Stabilising Aid to manage their road assets. Recent weather events have caused extensive road damage and Council and Shire budgets are stretched to breaking point. By including PolyCom Stabilising Aid in standard road repair procedures, works crews are delivering more productivity and more cost effective road repairs.
PolyCom is a reliable and efficient way to construct, maintain and repair sealed and unsealed roads. It is used to repair road shoulders, maintaining and improving the seal and shoulder interface, and it is used for stabilising soft spots in sealed roads and for patching to create a longer lasting permanent repair. PolyCom is effective on hardstands and airstrips and is used extensively on mine haul and access roads.
Council crews talked about how easy PolyCom is to apply, it can be applied in dry form rather than using a water cart. Standard maintenance procedures apply, there is no need for special machinery and in most cases there is no need to import resheet material.
Sustainable road maintenance is becoming increasingly important to council and government road authorities. Listed with Eco-Buy Victoria and with NSW Local Government Sustainable Purchasing, PolyCom Stabilising Aid has completed its first carbon footprint study with spectacular results.
Study: A common unsealed road in rural Victoria, one km long by six metres wide over one year.
Historically this road needed maintenance grading four times a year on average and was scheduled to be re-sheeted with a 75mm layer of imported pit gravel sourced 20 km away from the site at the time of the study.
Instead of resheeting, the road was treated with PolyCom Stabilising Aid. Maintenance crews scarified the road to 100mm depth, blade mixed PolyCom treated water into the road material and compacted the road as per standard practice. No new gravel was imported to the site.
Results
- no intervention or maintenance was required for that road for one year
- a water saving of 80 percent was achieved over this period
- CO2 emissions were reduced by 90 percent
- traditional method produces 7,217 kg of CO2-e per km
- polycom Stabilising Aid method produces 834 kg of CO2-e per km
Other significant benefits
- significant cost reductions due to the elimination of quarry material in the maintenance process
- reduction of the damage en route to roads caused by transport and tipping of quarry material to the site
- overall reductions in plant and machinery use
- the product is environmentally inert and is listed with Eco-Buy Victorian Centre for Environmental Purchasing, and NSW Local Government Sustainable Choice.
Collateral benefits
- polycom Stabilising Aid containers are fully recyclable (HDPE #2)
- reduced corrugations of the road surface due to avoidance of intense traffic during transport of quarry material to and from the site
- material compacted with PolyCom Stabilising Aid reduces sediment run-off into storm water drains
PolyCom Stabilising Aid is the future of sustainable, economic road construction, maintenance and repair.
An Australian innovation for innovative Australians
*Copy supplied by Polycom Stabilising Aid www.earthcoprojects.com.au
