Old asphalt carries new road: milling recycling process also meets with criticism

Created: 05/20/2022, 17:53

By: Andreas Höger

Work is scheduled to begin in July: the municipal road between Wettlkam and Bergham (in the background) will be renovated using the milling recycling method.

© Thomas Plettenberg

The municipality of Otterfing is using a new type of road rehabilitation method to rehabilitate the Bergham-Wettlkam road.

Milling recycling is significantly cheaper because it uses the old asphalt as a base layer.

Some local councilors see this as too great a risk for the environment.

Otterfing

– The old road is becoming the substructure for the new one: the community of Otterfing is building a new municipal road (1.66 kilometers) between Bergham and Wettlkam using the milling recycling process used for the first time in the district.

Work is scheduled to begin in July.

The costs are estimated at around 1.2 million euros.

However, the decision in the most recent municipal council meeting to use the much cheaper recycling process, which is not uncontroversial from an environmental point of view, was not unanimous.

"I can not agree," said Robert Schuesslbauer (CSU).

“There are expert opinions that express reservations about this procedure.” Some experts are critical of the fact that the old asphalt is not milled off and disposed of, but is worked into the new road.

"If contamination could possibly get into the groundwater, who is then liable?" According to Schüßlbauer, there are considerations to fundamentally remove the process from the market in 2023.

"If we go through with it this year just because we want to save, that sends the wrong signal." Susanne Weitl (CSU) expressed similar reservations: "We may be shifting dangerous legacy issues to the next generation."

The third dissenting vote came from Josef Killer (FWG).

He was aware of objections from the water authority to putting the old asphalt on the new road.

"This dirt has to go," he demanded.

"We shouldn't install a time bomb that will eventually blow up in our faces." In addition, no one can guarantee how long a recycling line will withstand the stresses.

A delegation from the community in Tuntenhausen and Straßlach had a look at how the milling recycling process works.

A special vehicle mills away the old pavement, enriches it with binding agents and immediately places the homogenized mass back on the track as a substructure.

That saves time and money.

Freistaat promotes milling recycling with over 50 percent of the costs

Building authority manager Hubert Zellner estimates the savings on Wettlkam-Strasse at around 400,000 euros.

He conceded that specialist agencies had fundamental concerns about the procedure.

But extra soil samples were taken to see how the old asphalt could best be bound.

"And new asphalt comes over it, which prevents the old material from being washed out." His conclusion: "The process does not represent a heavy burden." The experienced engineering office Weisser (Bad Aibling) advised the community.

In addition, the Free State supports the measure, specifically also the milling recycling, with more than 51 percent of the costs.

The vast majority of the council voted in favor of the procedure.

If the old asphalt contains pollutants, "they are still on this earth when we remove the asphalt," said Gerhard Heimerer (CSU).

"They were then just buried in a rubbish dump." If there was a risk of really dangerous contamination, "we would certainly have been very clearly advised to refrain from it," said Ulrike Stockmeier (FLO).

Andreas Eichhorn (SPD) reported on his research that the nature conservation authorities would also contradict each other in their assessments.

Thomas Hogger (Greens) pointed out that the old asphalt is technically bound.

"Nothing can be washed out anymore," emphasized Georg Schlickenrieder (CSU) - unlike in all the years when the road was crumbling: "Now we finally have it in our hands to tackle this road." Environment, said head of building authority Zellner, "the worst thing would be to do nothing at all".

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