Innovations in Road Construction Industry

 

Innovations in Road Construction Industry

 Prefabricated Plastic Roads

This innovation addresses the problem of environmental impacts caused by road construction. With a rapidly growing supply of plastic waste, reuse options that turn waste into resources are the need of the hour. These are prefabricated, modular, and hollow road structures built from recycled plastics. In Zwolle and Giethoorn, Netherlands, there are two bicycle paths made purely from waste plastics. This is the result of an invention by Simon Jorritsma and Anne Koudstaal, who launched their first product in 2018. The advantages of using Prefabricated Plastic Roads include:

• Faster project completion: PlasticRoads lead to the reduction of the project completion time from months to a few days. This is due to the lightweight and modular design of the roads.
• Water Storage: The hollow space in PlasticRoads can be used to temporarily store water. This helps prevent flooding during extreme precipitation.
• Storage: The hollow space can also be used for the transit of cables, pipes, sensors, or the electric charging of vehicles.
• Smaller carbon footprint: The PlasticRoad is a completely circular product and, thus, has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than traditional road designs.

 Solar Roads

A solar roadway is a road surface that produces electricity. The layers of a solar road include a glass layer, an electronic layer and a base plate layer. The system is employed to generate electricity by using photovoltaic cells. This type of roadway was first built in 2016 in France. The only real-world application of a solar roadway was done by Peachtree Corners Smart City and The Ray. The roadway is estimated to produce more than 1,300 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.  Let us look at the advantages of using solar roads:

• Production of renewable energy: Solar roadways are employed to generate electricity, thus contributing to sustainable development.
• Greater life span: The lifespan of solar roads is around 20 years which is much greater than that of Asphalt roads which is 7-12 years.
• Enhanced safety: Solar roads come with the possibility to affix solar lamps, charged by these solar panels. 

 Recycled Plastic Roads

Recycled plastic roads were developed by Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a professor of chemistry at the Thiagarajar College of Engineering in India. The material replaces 10% of a road's bitumen with repurposed plastic waste. Many different types of plastics can be added to the mix, including carrier bags, disposable cups, hard-to-recycle multi-layer films, and polyethylene and polypropylene foams. So far, 2,500 km (1,560 miles) of plastic-tar roads have been laid in India. Chennai was among the first cities globally to adopt this technology when the municipality commissioned 1000 km of plastic roads in 2004. The advantages of using recycled plastic roads include:

·         Lower carbon emissions: By 2040, there are set to be 1.3 billion tonnes of plastic in the environment globally. Recycling this plastic can help lower carbon emissions.

·         Enhanced Maintenance: Adding plastic to roads appears to slow their deterioration and minimise potholes.

·         Economic benefits: The incorporation of plastic results in savings of roughly $670 (£480) per kilometre of road.

·         Durability: Plastic roads can withstand both heavy loads and traffic.