Concrete Barriers with Crumb Rubber Prove Safe in Tests

Brief 

Rubber T-Lok, a type of rubberized concrete road safety barrier developed by Saferoads and researchers in Australia, can mitigate impact intensity, according to the results of recent crash tests. The product could help Australia recover more than 115 metric tons of used tires for each 6.2-mile stretch of road barrier, according to Saferoads CEO Darren Hotchkin.

Insight

The results are in from the world’s first full-scale test of concrete road safety barriers constructed with rubber crumb from end-of-life tyres; and a new, Australian public safety product has passed the ‘crash test’ and is on track to go to market.

The product – called Rubber T-Lok – has been developed by Saferoads and researchers from the University of Melbourne’s Advanced Protective Technologies of Engineering Structures (APTES) Research Group, with funding and support from Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA).

The crash test at Victoria’s Lardner Park facility in September demonstrated that rubberised concrete road barriers will decrease impact severity and are a viable use of end-of-life tyres that would otherwise go to waste.

Lina Goodman, TSA Chief Executive Officer, said that with enhanced safety benefits and a longer lifespan, Rubber T-Lok offers a cost-effective solution for a variety of industry sectors that make and use safety barriers, such as manufacturing, engineering, construction, mining, outdoor event management and government road safety programs, especially in regional, rural and remote areas.

The intellectual property (IP) around the manufacturing process is also of value to global markets.“This is yet another example of Australian ingenuity and innovation at its best, and we’re very proud to have supported a new home-grown product go from the lab to the real world,” Goodman said.

“We have already invested $8 million in 56 projects such as this, that increase consumption of the 140,000 tonnes of used tyres that go to waste in stockpiles and landfill each year. They are Australian designed, developed and built solutions that are increasing tyre resource recovery and decreasing the burden of waste for future generations.