Seems there’s a green angle to almost any product, even your basic road building material, asphalt.

Yes, there’s now a “green” asphalt product that’s starting to win over converts, first on the East Coast and now out West. Officials in San Jose, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT, are evaluating use of the environmentally friendly version of asphalt for use on city streets and parking lots.

The new green asphalt comes from Granite Construction, Inc. It’s green, because instead of the using the standard 350° hot-mix process, Granite uses a technique to prepare asphalt at 250°. The lower temperature preparation reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 35%.

Granite’s getting a leg up on its competition by promoting the advantages of reduced GHG emissions for the same product, at the same price and providing the same roadbuilding functions.

San Jose’s experimenting with green asphalt as part of its larger plan to adopt all sorts of environmentally friendly programs, especially cutting its GHG emissions by more than 50%. The city is also investing in a varitety of green infrastructure technologies, including:

• recycling tires and roofing wastes
• controlling stormwater runoff with previous concrete and other porous landscaping products
• creating green buildings
• diverting wastes from landfills, and
• using recycled water.

San Jose’s overall plan is detailed here.

A story about Salt Lake City’s use of Granite’s green asphalt is here.

Tags: green asphalt, greenhouse gas emissions, infrastructure, stormwater