Road Project in Australia Relies on Recycled Concrete

Brief 

Base material for a road upgrade project in Brisbane, Australia, includes recycled concrete and building materials from several well-known local structures. Rino Recycling, the company that provided 23,000 metric tons of material for the project, was recently certified to supply recycled materials for road construction.

Insight

Concrete recycled from major Brisbane buildings has formed the base for the $12.35 million road upgrade at the eastern end of Northshore.Rino Recycling, a Queensland commercial recovery and waste recycling operation, has provided 96 per cent of the recycled materials used in the upgrades of Cedar Road and Macarthur Avenue at Northshore.

The project is managed by BMD for the Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning and has involved upgrading key roads within Northshore Hamilton from the existing industrial accesses into thoroughfares that now service the residential, retail, commercial and recreational precinct.

Rino Recycling’s General Manager, Daniel Blaser, said the project was an excellent example of how recycled material from across the city can be used for major projects, rather than heading straight to landfill.

“State-of-the-art recycling of commercial building materials into a whole range of base materials absolutely should be the foundations of Brisbane’s next chapter of development. This is the future of development, utilising material that has been used before, to start again,” Mr Blaser said.

“The story only gets better when we share where the materials have come from, it invokes a sense of nostalgia, knowing that certain roads have a history.“The base for Cedar Road for example comes from concrete out of the Mater Hospital, stands from Ballymore and the Bulimba Barracks.

“Additional concrete, brick and concrete washout came from the BP Refinery, Cross River Rail and Windsor Holden while fill has come from recycled material from the Port of Brisbane, Brisbane City Council buildings and a wide range of smaller buildings across the city.