During the week of August 11, Cadillac Asphalt, the contractor working for the Washtenaw County Road Commission (WCRC), completed curb and storm structure repairs along Ellsworth Road between Platt Road and Carpenter Road in Pittsfield Township.
What’s Next:
The newly placed concrete has cured and reached the required strength. The contractor returned on August 21 to mill (remove) 2 inches of the existing asphalt surface on Ellsworth Road. This milling will prepare the roadway for the paving of a new asphalt surface. Work will continue through this weekend to pave the milled section.
Project Highlights:
This is not a typical paving project—Ellsworth Road is part of an innovative research partnership between WCRC, Michigan Technological University, and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). The goal: to evaluate the performance of a rubber-modified asphalt made from scrap tires.
As part of this study:
- More than 7,000 scrap tires will be recycled into rubber-modified asphalt.
- Cadillac Asphalt will pave approximately 0.8 miles of Ellsworth Road using this rubberized material between the bridge over I-94 and Carpenter Rd.
- For comparison, traditional asphalt will be applied on a different segment of the road—between Platt Rd and the bridge over I-94—to help researchers study the performance differences over time.
This project is funded by a grant from EGLE and Michigan Transportation Funds (MTF).
WCRC will continue to send updates as the project progresses. Have questions? Contact Neeko Robison, Project Manager – Design & Construction, (734) 327-6660, or via email at [email protected]
