MHCA asks City to launch review of recycled concrete
The MHCA has suggested the process for reviewing the reuse of crushed concrete taken up in public works projects each year be launched with a workshop where it can be decided how to frame that review.
That suggestion was emailed to Winnipeg Coun. Matt Allard October 2.
Coun. Allard chairs Council’s IRPW Committee, which on September 16 passed a motion directing the public service to work with industry via the Specification Review Committee, to help council in adopting a policy encouraging increased use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA).
The Committee — chaired by the City and composed of members from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Manitoba, the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and the Urban Development Institute — has been tasked to review Winnipeg’s new road-building design specifications.
Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of crushed concrete are pulled up from city streets, water and sewer works and private development in Winnipeg every year. The new specifications introduced this year make using RCA as base and sub-base material in street renewal works challenging.
The MHCA requested that the committee’s work begin with “an informal workshop to assess how recycled concrete (in its current form) should be evaluated. The workshop objective should be to strike a balance between engineering, environmental and social considerations.
“The workshop should use a quantitative approach to develop an evaluation matrix to assesses the key considerations based on agreed upon weightings.”
The email to Allard noted the objective would be to provide the review committee “with the basis of how to balance hard costs to soft costs, road performance with environmental responsibilities and social benefits” – the public seeing that roads are improved while environmental objectives are also met.
The workshop could include: Chair of the IRPW Committee, SRC members, engineering Prof. Ahmed Shalaby, recycled concrete suppliers, limestone producers, contractors, and environmental and engineering consultants from the private sector, the MHCA noted.
It is hoped that based on the outcome of that discussion, the City could then decide on contracting a person who involved in the use of RCA in another jurisdiction considered to be at the forefront, to serve as overall project lead in the tasks outlined in the IRPW October 2 resolution.
The committee is being assisted by Shalaby, who specializes in pavement design and highway materials. He is the Municipal Infrastructure Chair, in the University of Manitoba engineering faculty.
