Abstract
The use of recycled “reclaimed” materials has been increased during the last decades in order to obtain environmental benefits and to reduce the pressure on natural material resources. This paper focuses on using recycled concrete as a subbase material for highways. Concrete cubes produced from concrete tests such as compression strength, have been crushed to produce different particle sizes so as to satisfy the gradations requirements according to the Iraqi specifications for subbase martial. These recycled samples as well as the samples obtained from ordinary subbase have been subjected to maximum dry density, California bearing ratio (CBR) and Atterberg limits tests.
The results obtained from maximum dry density test suggested that the waste materials could be compacted to reach reasonable density. The CBR test’s results suggest that the CBR values obtained from recycled concrete is significantly higher than those CBR values obtained from the ordinary subbase. The Atterberg tests showed that the waste concrete material is satisfying Iraqi specifications for roads and bridges (SORB).
