Resources, Conservation and Recycling 44 (2005) 318–332 Design of unsurfaced roads constructed with large-size shredded rubber tires: a case study Ahmed Shalaby a, ∗ , Riaz Ahmed Khan b, 1 a Department of Civil Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man., Canada R3T 5V6 b Stantec Consulting, 49 Frederick Street,Kitchener, Ont., Canada N2H 6M7 Received 15 October 2003; accepted 14 December 2004 Available online 12 February 2005 Abstract Stockpiles of scrap tires are serious fire hazard, public health hazard, and an environmental burden. The construction of road embankments, using tire shreds as a lightweight fill, can consume large quantities of scrap tires and has certain engineering benefits. All the previous research focused on small size tire shreds (3–6 in. size) in terms of its use in civil engineering applications and determination of the engineering/environmental properties. This research specifically focuses on large size tire shreds (12 in. size) and its direct comparison with the other sizes of the tire shreds to develop mechanistic- empirical practical design model and so that the use of tire shreds in road bases could be used on regular basis with enhanced reliability instead of on an empirical basis. The research also examines the potential environmental implications of the use of shredded rubber tires and the comparison of the short-term results with other long-term monitoring studies. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Scrap tires; Road construction; Shredded tires; Temperature; Frost depth; Water quality; Compress- ibility 1. Introduction Waste tires are an ecological and financial burden in many regions of the world. In Canada and the United States, it is assumed that an equivalent of one waste tire per capita is ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 204 474 6818; fax: +1 204 474 7513. E-mail addresses: shalabya@cc.umanitoba.ca (A. Shalaby), rahmed@Stantec.com (R.A. Khan). 1 Tel.: +1 519 585 7462; fax: +1 519 579 6733. 0921-3449/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2004.12.004