Every time an old bridge or cracked stretch of highway is torn down, someone has to decide what happens to the rubble. In Illinois, much of it ends up being reused for the new construction project. A 2011 IDOT report covering calendar year 2009, from the Illinois Department of Transportation's Bureau of Materials and Physical Research, estimated that 284,715 tons of Recycled Concrete Material were used during highway construction projects in the state that year. Instead of relying solely on freshly mined stone, IDOT spent nearly $3.18 million buying and using this crushed concrete. It may seem like a small line item in the state budget, but it points to a broader practice in how states handle old concrete in road construction, and Illinois has done so for years.
Where does old concrete actually go?
