Use of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement in Puerto Rico

Abstract

This paper is an investigation of the use of recycled pavement in Puerto Rico. RAP or Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement is the pavement material extracted from existing roads and recycled by introducing it as part of new asphalt mixes’ materials. The introduction of RAP on asphalt mixes is a practice used by the United States of America (USA) several years ago. Nowadays the USA is implementing the use of high percent of RAP in their asphalt mixes allowing the 30 and 40 percent or more, of RAP in some states. At the meantime, Puerto Rico has a maximum percent of RAP allowed of 20% on certain asphalt mixes. But the production of asphalt mixes on the island still falls under this percent for state projects, making the implementation of RAP in Puerto Rico too low in comparison with other states. This investigation pretends to find out the reasons why the asphalt industry on the island is not moving forward on the use of RAP, and bring some recommendations which could help to impulse the production of high RAP mixes. Key Terms - RAP, Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, Recycle Asphalt, Puerto Rico.