The KOMO news website has covered that giant blocks of foam – known as expanded polystyrene — are being used to construct new ramps of the SR-99 Downtown Tunnel in Seattle on January 16th 2019. KOMO joked that drivers won’t just be driving on the pavement and they will drive on the foam.
You may be concerned about whether ramps constructed by expanded polystyrene (EPS) can bear the weight of vehicles. Whereas, it is reported that these blocks of foam weighed about 250 pounds each are held together by a quick-setting construction adhesive. After that, crews add rebar, concrete, a membrane to keep liquids out and some fabric before gravel and asphalt are put down.
The biggest advantage of the foam blocks is that they save amount of schedule time during construction. And this is not the first time expanded polystyrene has been used for ramps construction in Seattle. About 700,000 pounds of the blocks are packed inside some walls in Renton for the new flyover ramp. They’re embedded in the ramps that were built around T-Mobile Park. Projects in Bellevue, Kirkland and Tacoma also use the blocks.
As is far known to us, expanded polystyrene is good material which is used widely for single-use food containers, trays, cups and insulation board. And it’s significative for us to refer to the case used foam blocks for ramps in Seattle. However, companies and industries usually attach importance to the value of expanded polystyrene, most of people may ignore its final destination.
It’s a great pity that polystyrene isn’t be recycled and does large harm to soil and water. In order to develop our economy healthily, we are supposed to make every effort to recycle polystyrene. The company Intco Recycling has a polystyrene shredder GREENMAX which can reduce the volume of these foam blocks as 50:1. What’s more, with advanced technology you just should throw the foam blocks into the box of the machine. And it can operate automatically by open the switch. After that, these compacted foams can be sold in a good price all over the world.
Here’s hoping that the spirit of recycling is engrained enough not just about polystyrene, but also other materials such as paper cups, plastic bottles and so on.