PolyCom Stabilising Aid - highly effective yet simple road stabiliser.
Sustainable unsealed road
Central Victorian Council achieving sustainable roads
with PolyCom Stabilising Aid
In mid-2013, a central Victorian Shire Council recognised that its traditional unsealed road maintenance practices were unsustainable due to the cost to the community, use of scarce material and repeated disruption to road users.
The Shire’s traditional treatment was to re sheet the 75mm of existing gravel with new gravel from a quarry many kilometres away. This practice was placing pressure on Council’s triple bottom line and so engineers looked for an alternative method to maintain roads.
Council wanted to recycle or re-use its existing roads but to do this knew it needed to improve the engineering properties of the existing road material. Their research led them to PolyCom Stabilising Aid. PolyCom acts to strengthen the pavement and and create a tightly-bound surface, reducing water infiltration and significantly reducing surface deterioration.
PolyCom was simply applied by Council’s works crew and blended with the existing road material. No expensive equipment was required and the PolyCom application did not delay the crew.
As a progressive and forward-thinking organisation, this Council also set out to measure the financial and social benefits of using PolyCom. Prior to treating with PolyCom, one particular road was graded six times per year at a cost of $10,800 per annum. In the nine months since PolyCom was applied, this same road has only been graded once at a cost of $1800, a massive saving. Extrapolated over the life of the pavement and the entire road network, PolyCom will save this Council hundreds of thousands of dollars that can be re-directed to essential services and infrastructure.
The benefits of PolyCom don’t end there however. Ratepayers have also commented on the better quality of job and reduced disruption due to reduced maintenance interventions.
By using PolyCom, Council has achieved a true triple bottom line win: reduced cost, reduced use of raw materials and enhanced social amenity.
11 May 2014