Pennsylvania Investing in Waste Tire Project

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell announced that the state is investing $700,000 in waste-tire-reuse demonstration projects that could rid the state of 500,000 discarded tires, while rehabilitating rural roads, reducing sediment flowing to streams, and eliminating breeding grounds for mosquitoes that may carry the West Nile virus.

Penn State University’s Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies will use baled waste tires as a fill material to rebuild severely entrenched dirt and gravel roads, a common problem in rural communities. To create the bales, whole tires will be compacted into 2.5 x 4.5 x 5-feet cubes that weigh, approximately, one ton.

Penn State will use the tire bales as a fill base on portions of two roads in Madison and Greenwood townships, Columbia County. Drainage structures through the road base will allow sediment-bearing runoff to be dispersed to stable, vegetated areas of adjacent land, rather than flowing down the dirt roads and into streams.

Work on the project is expected to be complete this summer.