Recycled tires a game changer for road rebuilding in Manitoba

CTV’s Joseph Bernacki shows how recycled tires are being used to help repair roads in several Manitoba communities.

There’s a new method in town when it comes to building materials for road construction — recycled tires.

“I love doing this job. I can take the garbage that they used to bury in the landfills, and I can put it in a road,” said Peter Schroedter, owner of Engineered Rubber Aggregate Corporation.

Schroedter and his team have rebuilt roads across Manitoba for 20 years, processing old rubber tires into what’s called tire derived aggregate Type B.

The tires are shredded using a 250-horsepower hybrid shredder that uses two circular hook knives to cut the rubber.

The broken-down material is vital for stopping water from rising into the roadbed above it.

Schroedter said problems can persist in gravel roads from four feet into the ground.

“Once the water is in the roadbed in the fall, it freezes what they refer to as a frost lens,” he said.

“We have to get down there and we have to take corrective measures.”

Schroedter said once the water thaws in the spring, gravel roads can be damaged from the resulting expansion, leaving soft spots.

That’s where his team comes in with the recycled rubber. After excavating and putting some of the material underneath, the road is compacted and later ready for drivers.

“Before you know it, we’ve got it right up to the top, maybe it’s a foot or so higher and the road has load bearing properties,” Schroedter said.

“We’ve been working hard at strengthening the infrastructure using a product that was normally seen as garbage, and it has material properties that are amazing for this kind of work.”

It’s a rebuilding process Schroedter has used recently in Gimli, the R.M. of Stanley and the R.M. of Yellowhead.

Yellowhead council said it was an easy decision to have a stretch of gravel road repaired east of Shoal Lake earlier this spring.

“(We heard) the success stories that other municipalities had with the method,” said R.M. of Yellowhead Mayor Merv Staryk.

“Plus, it was kind of a win-win. It was a way to use up some of the tires that were piling up and put them to good use at a reasonable cost.”

Staryk said the municipality learned of this approach to road reconstruction through word of mouth from nearby rebuilds in the R.M. of Hamiota.

He said the R.M. of Yellowhead received funding for the roadwork through a grant from Tire Stewardship Manitoba.