California rebuilt a failed road with 330,000 waste tyres and saved $300,000
California engineers successfully repaired a landslide-damaged road in Sonoma County using 330,000 recycled tires as lightweight backfill. This innovative use of tire-derived aggregate reduced excavation needs and saved the county $300,000 compared to traditional retaining-wall methods.
Why it matters
This project demonstrates a cost-effective and sustainable civil engineering solution for stabilizing slopes using recycled waste materials.
A California road repair project took an unusual turn after heavy rains caused a previous reconstruction to fail. Instead of using another traditional retaining-wall system, engineers filled the damaged section with hundreds of thousands of discarded vehicle tires. According to CalRecycle, the official website of the State of California, the project was located on Sonoma Mountain Road in Sonoma County, near Glen Ellen. It was one of two local projects to test using tire-derived aggregate, or TDA, as a practical material to repair landslides and stabilize slopes. The road had been struck by a major landslide in the past, damaging about 600 feet. The failure was attributed to the poor native soil and excess moisture which left the ground saturated and unstable. According to online data, Sonoma County first selected a retaining-wall solution to repair the damaged roadway.
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