Initial Investigation of Using the Waste Rubber Tires as a New Sustainable Material for Electric Conductive Rigid Pavement

The accumulation of snow on roadway surfaces has the potential to result in deadly accidents and financial damage. Traditional de-icing procedures, which include the use of chemicals or salt and the use of heavy machinery, may have a negative effect on the environment and the structural integrity of highway infrastructure systems, and they are not sustainable at all. In addition, these methods are considered labor-intensive and dangerous, especially in crowded areas. The use of heated pavement systems (HPS), which can be in the form of hydronic (HHPS) or electrically conductive concrete (ECON), has gained popularity in recent years as a way of mitigating the effects of the accumulation of snow on highways and paved surfaces. While these approaches seem promising, they are also costly due to the raw resources used, such as the carbon fiber and the carbon black used in the ECON layer to alter the conductivity of the concrete layer, which accelerates the depletion of these raw materials. This research aims to present a new, sustainable approach for de-icing the accumulated snow in winter seasons on rigid pavements. Furthermore, this approach will address the issue of raw material depletion, making it more sustainable, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective than other alternatives. The new construction method depends on using waste rubber tires (WRT) as the source of heating to be applied to the rigid pavements. Depending on the mesh of steel wires embedded inside the rubber tires (under the tread), it has been noticed and proven that passing current through these steel wires embedded inside the rubber can produce heat. The outcomes of the investigation validate the effectiveness and application of the suggested method for heating the pavement surface by distributing pieces of the waste rubber tires along the rigid pavement and passing current through them to work as a source of heating under the rigid pavement so that the snow can be melted