City budget asked for cash to hire consultant on use of recycled concrete
Winnipeg’s Public Works Committee has asked that $300,000 be set aside in Council’s budget review process for 2023 to hire an external consultant to help with the research on the cost/benefits of using recycled concrete aggregates in roadbuilding.
“We support the hiring of a third-party expert on this subject, to move along the necessary work for considering increased use of RCAs in Winnipeg roadbuilding specifications,” said Chris Lorenc, President of the MHCA. “This work is vital to understanding all considerations – costs, environmental impact and resource management issues – of recycling and reusing concrete aggregate materials that are pulled up from Winnipeg streets and sewer & water works, each year.”
The MHCA has been working with the Public Works department since 2019, when specification changes were introduced. Those changes included revision to the material properties of aggregates, including RCAs, used in road base and sub-base construction. The industry has had difficulty producing the RCAs according to the new specs.
In 2020, the Council committee set out a directive to Public Works officials that the analysis of the broad costs and benefits of using RCAs been quantified, to better understand the financial and environmental impacts of using RCAs or sending them to the landfill, should the industry not be able to meet specifications.
That work had been suspended in 2021 and the industry has been frustrated with lack of progress. Few, if any, RCAs have been used in roadbuilding since 2021.
“We are hopeful and continue to work with the City of Winnipeg on this important file,” Lorenc said. “Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of this material are recovered during annual work to roads, sewer and water. If that material can’t be used in any good volume, it will have to go to the landfill and we think that is undesirable given the fact it is recyclable.”
The Public Works Committee also directed that the discussions between the department and the industry continue, in order that revisions to specifications are made through a consultative process.
