Performance Improvisation of Bituminous Roads using waste Plastic Material

Utilization of waste plastic as a aggregate in bituminous mix results in weak bonding between the plastic and bitumen. This study reports on the feasibility of using plastic waste and chemical additives to improvise the performance and mechanical properties of bituminous mixtures. The selected recycled waste plastics were used as partial aggregate replacement in bituminous mix product. Strong oxidizing mixture of dichromate and sulphuric acid was used to treat the plastic, while the bitumen was treated with a cross linking agent, polyethylene mine. Three modified bituminous mixtures were prepared and the stiffness results were compared with the control bituminous mixture. It was observed that the stiffness increased by 10% for the chemically modified bituminous mixtures. This improvement is attributed to an increase in the bonding forces between the aggregates and the bitumen. Besides, a mechanism is proposed in order to explain the effect of the chemical additives on the increase in the stiffness of the bituminous mixture.