Even without political influence in the mix, searching for effective recipes for recycled asphalt materials in road projects has been long and arduous. The recent investigation and guilty plea of an Illinois state senator, however, has opened a window on this complex tale.
It focuses on the trials-and-errors of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state transportation departments as they sought new processes that encouraged engineers and materials scientists to seek out magic mixes of materials and additives that might reduce the carbon footprint of freshly made asphalt, a material that was originally a byproduct of the internal combustion engine.
