Railroad Bridges Made of Recycled Plastic a Go
Filed Under: Environmental News, Green Technology on November 15, 2009
A company called Axion International Holdings, a company specializing in recycled plastics for high-load use in industrial applications, has won a near-million dollar contract ($957,000) to construct two railroad bridges made almost entirely from recycled plastics. The contract is from the U.S. Army and both bridges will be built in Fort Eustis, Virginia, home of the U.S. Army Transportation Corps.
Most of the structural components of the bridges will be made form 100% recycled plastics (both consumer and industrial) using Axion’s immiscible polymer blending process, creating what they call Recycled Structural Composites (RSC).
These have a load rating capacity of 130 short tons (about 118 metric tonnes), which will surpass the current record Axion holds (through construction at Fort Bragg, North Carolina) which have a capacity of 73/88 tons for tracked/wheeled vehicles.
Two wooden bridges currently serving the short spans are nearing the end of their service life and must be replaced. The new process by which Axion installs bridge work takes less time (bridges arrive in pre-fab pieces) and costs less than do wooden, steel, or concrete bridges. The RSC’s come in components that are just fitted together on-site to complete the bridge. The process takes less than half the time of a conventional concrete bridge. One bridge will span 40 feet and the other 80.
Axion predicts the bridges will have up to double their wooden counterpart’s lifespan, or roughly that of a conventional steel bridge. What’s more, the bridges can be recycled again when decommissioned and removed.
Axion is based in New Jersey and makes industrial plastics for bridges, marine pilings, and more. Everything is 100% recycled and made in the USA.
Pretty cool!
