Cold-mix recycled asphalt mixture is an environmentally friendly pavement material made by mixing recycled asphalt pavement material (RAP) with recycled binders (such as emulsified asphalt, foamed asphalt, cement, etc.) at room temperature. It has the following significant characteristics:
Main Features:
Room Temperature Construction, Energy Saving and Environmentally Friendly: No need to heat asphalt and aggregates, significantly reducing energy consumption. According to engineering examples, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 60%, and in some projects even by 80%.
100% Utilization of Reclaimed Materials (RAP): It can completely replace new aggregates and asphalt, achieving full recycling of waste pavement materials and effectively reducing sand and gravel mining and asphalt consumption.
Significant Cost Advantage: Raw material costs are approximately 45.9% lower than traditional hot-mix asphalt mixtures, and overall construction costs can be reduced by about 25%.
In large-scale projects (such as the Beijing-Harbin Expressway), hundreds of tons of crushed stone, asphalt, and energy equivalent to diesel can be saved per kilometer.
Excellent road performance; fatigue and deformation resistance comparable to coarse-grained asphalt concrete; by adding emulsified asphalt and cement as composite binders, composite organic hydraulic materials can be formed, effectively delaying reflective cracking; some high-performance formulations (such as the addition of anti-stripping agents and terpene resins) can improve water stability and high-temperature stability, with a dynamic stability of 5727 cycles/mm and a freeze-thaw splitting tensile strength ratio of 80%.

Convenient construction and highly adaptable. It can be applied in a wide temperature range of -30℃ to 50℃, and can even be used in rainy, snowy weather or in puddles. Suitable for various scenarios including highways, national and provincial roads, municipal roads, and airport runways. Especially suitable for base courses, subbase courses, and surface courses of roads below Class III (requiring an additional wearing course).
Environmentally friendly and safe. Utilizing water-based emulsification technology or natural oils instead of organic solvents, VOC emissions are reduced by 95%, with no toxic gases produced. Listed as a green building material in many regions, suitable for sensitive areas such as schools and kindergartens.
Limitations:
Longer setting period: Due to room temperature construction, moisture evaporation is slow, resulting in slower strength development compared to hot-mix asphalt.
Lower initial strength: Requires gradual development of load-bearing capacity through subsequent compaction and traffic loads.
High requirements for mix proportion control: Precise control of emulsified asphalt content, moisture content, and RAP gradation is necessary to ensure stable performance.
In summary, cold-mixed recycled asphalt mixture is an economical, environmentally friendly, and flexible green maintenance technology, particularly suitable for roads with low to medium traffic volume or as a base/subbase material, and has broad application prospects under the "dual carbon" background.