The demand for Portland cement in the U.S. plunged 44% as a result of the 2008 Great Recession. The impact on Buzzi Unicem USA at Stockertown, Pennsylvania was significant.  During this difficult economic period, natural gas extraction of the Marcellus Shale was beginning in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. The Marcellus Shale is one of the largest natural gas fields in the world.  It extends through West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. In Pennsylvania alone, over 7,000 wells have been drilled since 2005. 

A drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is being used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale more than a mile below the surface.  Approximately 1,500 trucks are required to deliver equipment and materials to each drilling site.  The truck traffic associated with fracking has caused rapid deterioration of local and state highways.  Some roads became impassable, even to four-wheel drive vehicles. A lack of access for police, fire and medical emergency vehicles was jeopardizing public safety. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) enacted a 10-ton weight limit on local roads.  This concentrated the heavy truck traffic on state roads.  Pennsylvania law required the gas companies to pay bonds and repair roads damaged by fracking operations. 

John DeMartino, who was a partner at E.J. Breneman, L.P. knew that full-depth reclamation (FDR) with cement was be the best solution for maintaining the roads impacted by fracking.   

During early 2010, John approached one of the nation’s largest natural gas exploration firms, Chesapeake Energy, about using FDR. A successful test was conducted in August 2010 and in 3 years E.J. Breneman repaired two-third (about 400 miles) of roads in the Marcellus Shale area using the FDR technique. This success resulted in sales of 60,000 tons from the Buzzi Unicem USA Stockertown in 2011 alone. 

The Portland Cement Association estimates that FDR saves between 30 to 60 percent in costs over the typical reconstruction method of removal and replacement of an existing pavement. According to a technical report by the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center and the Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University, FDR saves 3,800 metric tonnes of material and 5,900 liters of diesel fuel for every kilometer of construction of an eight-meter wide roadway.   

In addition to roadways, John promotes the use of FDR for well pads. A well pad constructed using FDR requires roughly 500 metric tonnes of cement. If every well in Pennsylvania since 2005 used FDR, 3.5 million metric tonnes of cement would have been consumed. 

The amount of FDR work in the Marcellus Shale region varies annually depending on the amount of well-drilling activity. PennDOT districts, municipalities and commercial developers outside the Marcellus Shale area are starting to embrace FDR technology.  National and local promotional efforts are paying off. E.J. Breneman’s business, along with other FDR contractors, is expanding our market opportunities for additional cement sales at Stockertown.

Full-Depth Reclamation Technique

FDR is a cost-effective, sustainable method to construct a pavement base by recycling an existing asphalt pavement and its underlying layers.

FDR begins with a road reclaimer pulverizing an asphalt pavement and the underlying layers up to 40 centimeters deep. After the pulverized material is graded and shaped to the desired typical section, cement is spread on top as either a dry powder or slurry.  The cement application rate is determined by laboratory testing and specified in terms of weight per surface area (kg/m2). The roadway reclaimer mixes the pulverized material and cement during a second pass. Water is added to achieve the appropriate moisture content for compaction and hydration. The blended material is compacted with rollers and moist-cured with a bituminous sealer. Finally, a new road surface is paved over the FDR stabilized base.