Hot recycling is a proven technology that provides a timely answer to the nation''s road maintenance and rehabilitation problems. Successfully-completed projects across the country have shown both cost effectiveness and quality of pavement produced by this time-tested process. Reclaimed aggregates and asphaltic cements are broken down to their original state and reused to produce high quality asphaltic concrete, the performance of which has been proven to equal that of conventional mixes.

Hot recycling can transform old, deficient pavements into good functional roadways. Problems associated with deterioration of asphalt and gradation can be corrected with aggregates and asphalt added to the new mix. Hot recycling can also help correct and maintain vertical and horizontal geometrics. Where curb and bridge clearances are affected, old overlays can be milled and recycled in a cost effective rehabilitation alternative.

In addition to these pluses, hot recycling:

• Eliminates the disposal problems inherent in conventional methods;
• Requires only minor modifications to existing equipment;
• Can be performed in compliance with existing air pollution control standards; and
• Can be done repeatedly, using the same materials.

Equipment now available offers a cost effective enhancement and allows conventional asphalt plants, which were not originally designed for using recycled materials, to be modified and fitted with recycling equipment.