Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has signed an agreement with the American National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) for training for recycling workers and research and knowledge exchange on the latest recycling technologies.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Saad bin Ahmed Al Mohannadi, president of Ashghal, and Dr Randy West, director of NCAT, on the sidelines of the fourth road workshop entitled "Recycling in Road Projects" organised , in cooperation with the Italian Company ANAS SPA.
This workshop is part of PWA efforts to achieve sustainable environment, conservation of natural resources and reduction of project cost.
Al Muhannadi said that by the end of 2017, the Authority had launched an initiative to use recycled materials in Ashghal projects, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2017-2022.
The initiative was kicked off in January under the supervision of the Ashghal Research and Development Center under the Quality and Safety Department, to use recycled asphalt in the Izghawa Area as part of a road maintenance project.
He added: "Projects in the country need about 2 million tons per month of aggregates, most of which are obtained through imports, while there are about 80 million tons of construction and drilling waste at the Rawdat Rashed landfill, which is an environmental and logistic challenge in the country.”
In cooperation with the Ministry of Municipality and the Environment, Ashghal took the first step to take advantage of these wastes in the projects after recycling process. This is in addition to cooperating with Qatar Company for Raw Materials to optimize the use of available resources.
Ashghal is also working on another pilot project in the coming period for the use of recycled materials from the construction waste at the Rawdat Rashed landfill in a local road project.
Asphalt recycling initiatives and their use in Ashghal projects contribute to the direct reduction in the cost of construction materials from rubble and bitumen, up to 17 per cent, without the cost of indirect costs such as import, transport and other costs.
Khalid Al-Emadi, manager of Quality and Safety Department in Ashghal, said that this workshop comes within the initiative of the Public Works Authority to recycle its project materials in general and to recycle asphalt layers as well as construction waste and to use iron slag, tires, and other materials in the implementation of its projects in particular.
"We would like to emphasize that Ashghal, in cooperation with all its Affairs and Departments, has developed an action plan at the beginning of year 2018 in order to implement effective schemes to reduce costs, preserve the environment, and sustain the Authority’s projects; in cooperation with many entities, Ashghal made research studies for the reuse of building materials, which proved their economic and practical feasibility and verified that they are consistent with the requirements of specifications and conditions of the state,” Al-Emadi added.
The Quality and Safety Department has incorporated recycling in Qatar Standards QCS2018 in a wider manner in support of these ambitious projects that Ashghal is seeking to implement. A specialized team in the field of material recycling has also been set up from local and international expertise and Ashghal Center for Research and Development has also been equipped with all the advanced equipment needed in this field to support all projects and proposals in this regard.
In addition, initial pilot projects are being carried out by Ashghal with the assistance of Al Jaber and Makhlouf Company and Boom Construction Company in different areas of Doha.
Dr Othman Al-Hussain, senior quality engineer in Ashghal, said that the Authority's initiative to recycle asphalt materials and reuse them in road works is the first of successful experiments through which Ashghal seeks to achieve one of the most important pillars of the National Strategy 2017-2022 which is Environmental Sustainability. Quality and Safety Department has already successfully started its first experiment in asphalt recycling and using it in re-paving in Izghawa area.
Ashghal will also recycle the dirt layers by using the demolition waste from Rawdat Rashed in road works in Al Wakra area, in addition to several future projects.
Dr Al-Hussain added that through the cooperation with the US National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) a large number of technicians and employees will be trained to achieve the required results and transfer the highest technology in recycling to Qatar. – TradeArabia News Service
Send us your company’s news today and they could be featured on ABC’s Community News tommorow.
