Rocky Mountain Arsenal Completes One of the Largest Recycling Projects in the Country

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal transported the last of its 1.9 million tons of crushed runway concrete from the former Stapleton Airport to the Arsenal on April 23. Following the demolition of the old Stapleton Airport runways, the concrete sat in towering piles adjacent to the site for the past four years.

The Arsenal purchased this high-quality crushed concrete from the City of Denver to use in constructing covers over landfills and consolidation areas. The concrete is part of a multi-layered cover system that keeps surface water from migrating into the waste and prevents wildlife from burrowing through the cover.

Realizing the Stapleton concrete met stringent specifications, Arsenal managers purchased the concrete rather than excavating new material and trucking it in from quarries outside the Denver metro area. This arrangement allowed the Arsenal to lead one of the largest recycling projects in the country. It also avoided pollution and safety risks from an estimated 100,000 round trips needed to haul materials from mountain quarries.

The Arsenal’s environmental cleanup program is nearly complete, and the Stapleton concrete is now being used in the final cover construction project – the site’s second landfill. The cleanup is on schedule to end in 2010 with about 1,100 acres permanently maintained by the Army. The rest of the site is currently, or will become, part of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.