An innovative Houseapproved road-surfacing program that would mix rubber from discarded tires with asphalt shows considerable promise and deserves a thorough test. The idea was offered by Rep. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, as an amendment to the surface transportation bill lhat would provide $55 million during three fiscal years to states that pave roads with the asphalt-tire combination. Rep., Sam Gejdenson a Connecticut Democrat and booster of the program, says experience suggests the rubber-asphalt mixture is more desirable and longerlived than conventional asphalt alone. Wyden goes further. He says an asphalt road can be expected to last six to eight years, but with the tire-rubber ingredient the life expectancy might go to 10-12 years. The program would help rid the nation of countless discarded tires. In fact the Environmental Protection Agency estimates 240 million used tires are abandoned each year. These could be put to use in the proposed new road-building plan and save the cost of burying them in landfills, at an estimated $100 million a year. Still another claimed benefit, says Gejdenson, is that mixing rubber with asphalt would save crude oil, prime ingredient of asphalt, and decrease U.S. dependency on foreign oil. The process for creating the paving material is quite simple, according to a New York Times story. The article quotes John E. Huffman, vice president of an Arizona petroleum and asphalt firm, as saying that discarded truck, bus, and auto tires are ground to the consistency of a coarse powder and mixed with hot asphalt. The mixture is spread on the road surface like regular asphalt and allowed to set. Not everyone agrees the Wyden plan is a cure-all. ”1t’s a technology, it works, it’s commercially available,” said Richard Hanneman of the National Association of Waste Management Officials,” but it doesn’t always make economic sense. It’s more of a symbolic gesture to the conservationists than anything.” Huffman agreed economic factors are variable at this time. The Wyden amendment, which the House passed by a voice vote, allocates $5 million for fiscal year 1983, and $25 million for fiscal years 1984 and 1985 to states that develop programs using the tire-asphalt paving mixture. The money would come from revenue produced by the 5-centa-gallon tax recently approved by the House. The idea deserves a sound, thorough test, from road officials at all levels of govemment to see if practice lives up to early promise.