When the Albion Park Rail bypass opens motorists will be driving over the equivalent of 30 million glass bottles.
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But there's no chance of getting a punctured tyre.
Around 8.2 kilometres of the asphalt in the 9.8-kilometre bypass will be laid with recycled crushed glass replacing sand in the process.
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"While use of glass in asphalt is not new, the Albion Park Rail bypass project represents its large-scale use," a Transport for NSW spokeswoman said, "with 10 per cent recycled glass sand in asphalt, and this is a significant sustainability benchmark within NSW.
"Typical asphalt pavement includes up to only 2.5 per cent recycled glass sand."
Each type of asphalt product used in road construction has a mix that incorporates sand - the recycled glass replaces that sand component.
"The base asphalt layer used on the Albion Park Rail bypass is made up of 25 per cent recycled material including 10 per cent recycled crushed glass and 15 per cent reclaimed asphalt pavement," the spokeswoman said.
Around 8.2 kilometres of the asphalt in the 9.8-kilometre bypass will be laid with recycled crushed glass.
The glass will not be used on all layers of the roads laid as part of the Albion Park Rail bypass, with there being no plans to use it in the top layer which motorists will drive on.
This is part of the reason why car tyres won't be damaged by the use of glass. The other reason being because there are no shards to puncture tyres anyway.
"Recycled crushed glass is refined to sand particle size," the spokeswoman said.
"As recycled crushed glass is only proposed to be used in the base asphalt layers on the project, vehicles would not be travelling on layers that contain recycled crushed glass."
The $630 million bypass,which would allow drivers to skip six sets of lights, is expected to be open in 2022.
Some sections of the project are already in use, including a bridge into Albion Park - which will form the southbound off ramp in the finished project - and the Croome Road bridge.
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