NYC Tests 96% Recycled Asphalt on Fordham Road in the Bronx: What Changes for Riders
New York City is testing two experimental roadway surfaces on Fordham Road in the Bronx: one using steelmaking byproducts and another using recycled plastic. NYC DOT announced the pilots on October 23, 2026. The test area runs between Webster Avenue and Southern Boulevard, overlapping a larger project to improve Fordham Road bus service. One asphalt mix is made with 96% recycled materials, but that number applies to the steel-slag pilot mixture — not every road resurfacing project or both test formulas.
Webster Avenue to Southern Boulevard in the Bronx.
The recycled share of this particular experimental mix, not all NYC asphalt.
Equivalent plastic waste incorporated into the pavement for the pilot.
NYC DOT-reported daily ridership along the Fordham Road corridor.
Where is NYC DOT testing the new asphalt?
The two recycled-asphalt treatments are being tested along the eastern stretch of Fordham Road between Webster Avenue and Southern Boulevard in the Bronx. NYC DOT announced the experiment on October 23, 2026, while work continues on a broader redesign of the corridor.
That corridor is also being improved with new offset bus lanes and street-safety measures. The resurfacing pilot should be understood as one component of the roadwork, not a completed evaluation of faster buses or a citywide change in paving standards.
What does 96% recycled asphalt really mean?
The 96% figure describes NYC DOT’s trial steel-slag asphalt mixture. Approximately 66% of that mix consists of recycled steel-slag aggregate, a byproduct of steelmaking. Other recycled materials account for the remaining recycled portion.
Steel slag can replace part of the virgin stone aggregate used in pavement. NYC DOT wants to test whether this approach improves durability and reduces the emissions associated with obtaining and transporting new materials. The city has not yet published long-term field results proving that this pavement lasts longer than conventional asphalt on Fordham Road.
How does recycled plastic get into a street surface?
The separate plastic-asphalt mix uses waste plastic, including material derived from drink bottles, to modify the asphalt binder instead of relying entirely on virgin polymer additives. That is a different technique from the steel-slag mix; the two pilots should not be described as the same 96%-recycled road surface.
NYC DOT says the plastic incorporated into this test is equivalent to more than 1.9 million bottles. The department estimates a project-specific reduction of around 56.6 metric tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions, equivalent to roughly 124,800 pounds. These are agency estimates for the pilot, not a measured citywide climate result.
Will it reduce potholes or make buses faster?
The experiment is intended to assess whether the two materials stand up to intensive bus and vehicle traffic, seasonal weather and repeated stress. Better resistance to wear could eventually help reduce maintenance, but the department still needs to monitor performance before making a broader claim.
The separate Fordham Road redesign includes offset bus lanes and safety upgrades serving a corridor with approximately 130,000 daily bus riders. Those traffic changes may influence bus speed and reliability independently of the asphalt itself. It would be misleading to credit the new recycled pavement alone for expected travel-time savings.
How does this compare with New York City’s regular asphalt?
NYC DOT already makes substantial use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP). Its two in-house asphalt plants currently produce mixtures averaging around 40% recycled content. The new 96% steel-slag formulation is therefore an experimental departure from ordinary production, not a description of all newly paved NYC streets.
The department says it has tested recycled roadway-material mixtures containing up to 50% reused pavement since 2019. In 2026, the agency also developed a 50% RAP mix for future street use. The Fordham Road pilots test additional materials beyond conventional reclaimed roadway asphalt.
What this means for local residents and businesses
Road users may see resurfacing operations associated with the larger Fordham Road corridor project. The October 23 pilot announcement does not provide a detailed lane-by-lane construction calendar, a precise completion date or a list of overnight closures.
For delivery drivers, commuters and neighborhood businesses, current posted detours and official NYC DOT traffic advisories should take priority over this article. People using the Bx12 and other services should check MTA alerts for live routing and stop changes. The material trial itself does not establish a new bus schedule.
What environmental claims can be verified now?
NYC DOT has disclosed the composition of the experimental steel-slag mix and a calculated emissions benefit for the recycled-plastic mix. Those are useful starting metrics, but they are not a complete independent life-cycle analysis covering all transport, manufacturing, installation, maintenance and end-of-life impacts.
The department will need data on durability, maintenance frequency, performance in winter and any material-specific environmental safeguards before deciding how widely to adopt these treatments. The test matters precisely because the city has not yet established those results under ordinary road conditions.
What to watch after the pilot
- Whether NYC DOT publishes comparative durability and pothole data for the two surfaces.
- How the pilot sections perform through a full winter and heavy bus use.
- Whether independently reviewed life-cycle emissions figures become available.
- When the Fordham Road bus-lane redesign is fully operational and its travel-time results are measured.
- Whether the city expands either recycled mix to additional streets after the pilot.