THE EVALUATION OF ANTHRACITE REFUSE AS A HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL

Special Research Report SR-57 Highway construction in Pennsylvania is proceeding at a phenomenal rate with an ever increasing backlog of new programs. One aspect of such programs is to stimulate the economic development of areas such as the Pennsylvania anthracite producing region. If anthracite refuse could be used as a material for road cofistruction, the building costs of roads in this area could be reduced while at the same time removing the unhealthy, unsightly refuse piles. The tons of refuse per mile of roadway that could be used as base, subbase, and embankment materials is a function of the bed height and shoulder width as shown in Figure 1. The trend in highway construction is towards road usage evaluation in order to use lesser quantities of higher quality materials of con- struction. Such an approach provides a longer lasting roadway. A study of State and Federal highway specifications for materials of con- struction showed that the requirements are quite rigid and that just any type of solids will not suffice. A resume of these specifications and associated definitions is included in this report for the conven- ience of the reader. .Since such specifications usually require higher priced prepared products, new sources of lower cost quality materials are needed. A raw refuse and two beneficiated refuse samples, all from the same anthracite refuse source, were submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Highways for testing. The two beneficiated samples repre- sented the removal of coal and pyrite, two undesirable, and therefore restrictive constituents which can be the basis of material rejection.