Liberty Tire Recycling clears out speedway's used tyres

ERJ staff report (TB)

Kansas City, Kansas -- Liberty Tire Recycling L.L.C. recently removed hundreds of used tyres from the infield of Kansas Speedway that were left over after the construction of a new road course at the NASCAR facility owned and operated by International Speedway Corp.

The tyres had been stockpiled for use as soft walls on the road course, according to Liberty Tire, which said all of the tyres will be used as material for eco-friendly products, including crumb rubber and industrial feedstock for molded products, tyre-derived fuel for industrial kilns, mills and power plants, and rubber mulch for landscaping and playgrounds.

“We collect and recycle used tyres from various sources throughout the country - from racetracks to tyre retailers to illegal dumps - in order to create a new life for materials that would otherwise damage the environment,” said Jeffrey Kendall, Pittsburgh-based Liberty Tire's CEO. “We were happy to provide support to Kansas Speedway to ensure that leftover tyres were disposed of properly and provide a beneficial use as sustainable raw material.”

One connection between Liberty and the speedway is use of some of the recycled tyre rubber as rubberized asphalt. Bill Braniff, senior director of construction for ISC Design & Development, International Speedway Corp.'s in-house design and construction group, said the company likes “the idea of using rubberized asphalt in our parking lots and concourses, and we'll continue to look for ways to use it on our skid pads to develop a test area to see how it would perform on the track itself.”

In redesigning the speedway, the group used state-of-the-art computer modeling to develop track geometry that features 18- to 20-degrees of variable banking in the turns, according to Liberty Tire. The previous banking at Kansas Speedway was 15-degree uniform banking in the turns. Construction crews removed the existing oval track asphalt pavement and re-graded the underlying soil to create the variable banking. The new road course features a layout that winds through the infield, portions of which were graded and paved as part of the road course development.

The renovation project is expected to be completed in time for Kansas Speedway's hosting of its annual “Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup” event, the Hollywood Casino 400, tentatively set for Oct. 21.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)

Press release from Liberty