Rubberized Asphalt

with used in

St. Petersburg, Russia

to reduce noise
In St. Petersburg, Russia in 2018 the Western High-Speed Diameter (WHSD), a strategic investment
project of the city, is developing a major world-class transporta on hub to improve the quality of life
experience by reducing traffic noise from the pavement surfaces. The WHSD is a 46-kilometer highway
consis ng of three sec ons and connec ng the north and south of St. Petersburg.

To this end WHSD engaged the services of DSK Dorstroy the business unit of the ABZ-1 Group of
Companies to propose a solu on (www.abz-1.ru). The tradi onal open graded hot mix solu ons to
reduce noise have not been cost effec ve in Russia because of the cold weather usage of studded res
that wear out that kind of surface prematurely.
The challenge was to find a mix with low air void content (2 percent or less) yet capable of providing
cost effec ve noise reduc on, good rut and wear resistance and wet fric on property. Maidanova
Natalia, PhD, Deputy Director for Quality, Head of the Research Center ABZ1 proposed the use of an
asphalt hot mix with rubberized asphalt with RARX (www.rarx.net) which combines the benefits of the
dry and wet process of asphalt rubber, thus allowing greater amounts of ground re to be incorporated
in the hot mix. RARX is reacted and ac vated rubber which can be placed directly as a dry powder into
the pugmill of the contractor’s plant.

Under Dr. Natalia’s direct supervision several mixes were formulated and tested in laboratory; “The task
that the customer has set is to reduce the noise from moving vehicles along the highway. The highway
passes through the city, some mes near residen al areas. The second task is to reduce the wear of the
coa ng from the impact of studded res. To solve these problems, composi ons with RARX and with
addi ves of super wear-resistant mineral compounds were developed”
Mixes A and D were selected as they exhibit some different but important excellent performance in
some key indicators. For instance, RARX-SMA 16 has the highest tensile strength at -18 ⁰C. While RARX-
THINGAP+Abrasive had the best ru ng resistance. Both mixes had great wear resistance in the Prall
test.

CONSULPAV (www.consulpav.com) under the support of SILENT RUBBER PAVE project

(silentrubberpave.eu) provided technical input to this project. The 25 tons of RARX required for this job
was supplied by CIRTEC (www.cirtec.es).

The demonstra on projects with MIX A (RARX SMA16) and Mix D (THING GAP RARX + Abrasive) were
built October 13th, 2018.

Air temperature was 15 ⁰C!!! The layer thickness was 5 cm for MIX A and 4 cm for MIX D.

“The temperature of the mixture in the machine is 182 ⁰C, a er Shu le-Bag when it is loaded into the
stacker 165 ⁰C, a er the plate of the stacker 164 ⁰C, a er 2 passes with a steel roller Hamm 90 – 157 ⁰C,
a er 4 passes -151 ⁰C, a er passes 6 – 145 ⁰C, a er 8 passes – 139 ⁰C. A er 8 passes reached
compac on. The mixture did not s ck to the rollers”.
In the photo, from le to right, Dr. Natalia, Mikhail Kalinin, the Director of ABZ-1 OJSC (business unit of
ABZ-1 Group of Companies), produced the mixes at their asphalt plant, and Kirill Melnik, Head of the
Laboratory. Everyone is very happy to have a successful demonstra on project that took place on
fantas c weather day. The last me that St. Petersburg felt 15 ⁰C on October 13th was 120 years ago!

Nevertheless, she acknowledges that the stakes are very high. Tradi onal wisdom dictates that to resist
studded res large par cles aggregates must be used. Meanwhile tradi on wisdom also dictates that to
reduce noise small par cle size mixes should be used combined with more open graded grada on.

The compromises made towards improving noise reduc on may affect durability regardless how good
Prall test results appear to indicate. The combina on RARX with high quality abrasives has never been
tried before! “In a year or two we will be able to ascertain the cost benefit of these innova ve solu ons
with RARX”.

No noise evalua ng CPX tests have been done yet. However, Dr. Natalia’s expression a er driving over
the sec on was: “Drove over the overlay by car at a speed of 110 kilometers per hour. Noise from the
wheels significantly lower !!!!”

I guess you can be the judge of the effec veness of these RARX-SMA and RARX-THINGAP in noise
reduc on. In the video below, they are the blacker surface on the le lane that appears around the 34th
second into the video (turn up the sound to listen, you will listen to the noise difference between
regular and the new RARX sec ons).
 0:00 / 1:18

I think St Petersburg has just made the very first step into improving the St Petersburg quality of life.

We acknowledge the contribu ons made by Dr. Maidanova Natalia, Deputy Director for Quality, Head of
the Research Center ABZ-1 to this ar cle.
Dr. Jorge B. Sousa
Director
Rubberized Asphalt Founda on
Jorge.B.Sousa@gmail.com