Modified Flexible Pavement Design by using Foamed Polystyrene Waste

The plastic material disposal has been rapidly increasing day by day. In the same way, the traffic density is also increasing. Due to this load bearing capacity on road is also increasing which leads to damage of pavement and also reduction of the life span of pavement. To overcome this damage, waste plastic material has been used as a replacement in flexible pavements. Waste plastics are mainly made up of compounds like Polyethylene, Polystyrene and Polypropylene. Plastic heated at temperatures between 120ËšC-160ËšC gives the softening point. They do not produce any toxic gases at this temperature but, these plastics have the tendency to form a layer over aggregate when it is heated at 160ËšC and can be further used for road construction. The aggregate coated plastics have higher strength when compared to normal aggregate. The use of this technology will not only strengthen the road construction but also increases the road life as well as help to improve the environment. The main significance of this paper is to discuss the plastic flexible pavement in terms of cost reduction, increase in strength and durability. The plastics are heated and coated upon the aggregates (160ËšC) to compensate the air voids with plastic and gets binded with aggregate to provide stability.