Santa Barbara County finished a first-of-its-kind road stabilization project today in Summerland using 81,000 recycled tires.
California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, also known as CalRecycle, awarded the county a $158,241 grant in March of 2018 to buy TDA material for the project, which consisted of a 225-foot section of Ortega Ridge Road.
This was the first infrastructure project in the state of California to use tire-derived aggregate (TDA) material to backfill the retaining walll's rock-filled welded wire backets, according to CalRecycle.
"This CalRecycle grant project is a new model for how communities can transform recycled waste tires into a valuable resource to improve local infrastructure and protect public safety," said CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline.
Comprised of more than 800 tons of waste tires from California, TDA was used to refill a retaining wall, replacing old soil in an effort to better support the embankment.
CalRecycle says researchers from the University of California San Diego gave the OK for TDA to be safely used in this project.
The stabilization project is part of CalRecycle's Tire-Derived Aggregate Grant Program, which provides financial support for projects "that use recycled waste tires in place of conventional construction material for civil engineering applications."
Since 2011, the department has awarded more than $5.5 million in TDA grants to 28 projects across the state of California.
