environment – vivaNext

another reason to get excited about paving >> CIREAM!

Here at vivaNext, we think paving techniques and processes are uniquely fascinating. This summer, crews have been paving a base layer of asphalt on Highway 7 West, Bathurst Street and Centre Street, using a method known as “CIREAM”, or Cold in-Place Recycled Expanded Asphalt Mix.

With CIREAM, the process for base-layer paving is reduced to one complete operation; rather than milling old asphalt and hauling it away, CIREAM is essentially recycling. Here’s how it works.

all aboard the paving train!

The paving crew works a train of three connected machines – the cold milling machine, the cold recycler, and the paver:

The cold milling machine removes the approximately 100 millimetres of the existing asphalt.
The cold recycler machine then picks it up and blends it with an asphalt-concrete liquid. This mix is then put back on the road.
The paver machine paves the new asphalt back onto the road. Finally a roller compacts the repurposed asphalt.

advantages + benefits

One of the big benefits of CIREAM is speed. It’s simply faster than regular paving because these three operations happen without having to haul away and dispose of the old asphalt, and it cures more quickly as well. Speaking of haulage and disposal, CIREAM is more environmentally friendly since the old asphalt is reused.

CIREAM paving turns cracked and uneven asphalt into a smooth surface for vehicles and creates an excellent base for future final paving.

For information about ongoing vivaNext projects, be sure to subscribe to email updates, and follow us on Twitter. Questions or comments? Comment below or email us at contactus@vivanext.com.

keeping it green, one ride at a time

Blogpost by: Sara Grilli

As a society, most of us agree we need to do our part to take care of our environment, ensuring future generations can enjoy it. Helping out the environment can start with small steps such as using a reusable water bottle, switching to paper straws and making a conscious effort to properly recycle materials that we use.

Another step we can take in the right direction is the way we travel. Different transportation methods have different impacts on the environment. Active modes of transportation such as walking and biking are the most ideal but are not always practical for long distance travel. Transit is the next best option that benefits the environment.

A bigger step in making environmentally-friendly choices is building infrastructure that makes it easy to choose transit. Transit and communities built close to transit provide a multitude of benefits to the environment including:

Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions: One bus can replace up to 70 cars on the road.
Alternative Fuels: The number of buses using alternative fuels increased significantly in the past 10 years, according to the U.S Federal Transit Administration. In April, the Government of Ontario committed to investing in a new pilot program that will allow York Region to purchase six, forty-foot electric battery-powered buses.
Air quality: The more people use transit, the fewer cars there are on the road which will significantly improve the air quality.
Protecting land: The Oak Ridges Moraine Act [2001] and the Greenbelt Act [2005] together protect 69% of York Region’s land. By building compact, transit-oriented development where growth should be, in our city centres, we help conserve the remaining 31% from suburban sprawl.

We have more projects to come, both bus rapid transit and subway, and they all contribute to making the environment better. We only have one earth; let’s do our part to take care of it.