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Compare this to full reconstruction, which is an expensive and time-consuming process. "We used to build the roads from the bottom up. But we don't have that kind of money, so we have to figure out how to do it from the top down," says Johnson.

By recycling the material already in place, FDR offers many economic and environmental benefits. "RAP, along with all other aggregate, has gotten to be an extremely expensive commodity," says Edwards. "Coupled with liquid asphalt prices that are bouncing between $400 and $500 a ton right now, there has never been a better time to promote FDR."

Greta Wilt, Ray Hensley Inc., Springfield, OH, agrees, noting, "I see a better market for FDR as fuel and raw material prices keep increasing." Her company started doing FDR in the early '90s. "When you use FDR, you reuse everything that you have ever put on that road. The asphalt is ground up and reused in place. You are saving landfill cost and virgin aggregate cost."

Site-Prep of NC performs between 15 to 25 lane miles of FDR work per year. "We are [taking] the base and the RAP from the asphalt, strengthening the base and a lot of times using a chemical stabilizer — whether it is cement, lime or emulsion — to bind it all together to reconstruct a road," Edwards explains. "That is why it is so inexpensive relative to its alternatives.

"By stabilizing that base, you get a new structure," he continues. "It is not just replacing what was there; it is putting a new base in that can support higher traffic loads. You basically get a brand new road without having to do full reconstruction."