Road recycling
Juggernaught roadbuilding machines have been churning up the String Road this week. By the weekend the brow of the hill should have one of those quite smooth surfaces which have been popping up in short stretches here and there over the last few years.
This one is unusual because, as roads engineer Geoff Norris says, the road is being recycled. This has not only been made for less disruption, but less cost, and the 520 metre stretch will cost a mere £45,000 – cheap by roadbuilding standards. Instead of bringing in new materials the machines are churning up the exiting road. What was Tarmac then becomes soft. It is then levelled and bonded with cement and a surface is laid over the top. This precludes the need for bulky materials being shipped and great mounds of old tar to be disposed of. Geoff said it is the fi rst time this recycling method has been tried on Arran and is therefore experimental from his point of view. It is hardy and especially suitable for, at 235 metres, the highest road on Arran.