Plastic Roads Will Be The Future.
- Thread starter glamphotographer
- Start date
The trouble with technology is it can be superseded by a better idea then you have lost everything
Fascinating concept.
I don't know much about current road-building technology, but it does seem to me that it is not terribly durable. The amount of road repair that hits us (at least in the U.S.) every summer is staggering. Of course I live mostly in northern climes where snowplows take their toll.
KK
I swear roads are less durable than they were a couple decades ago. There's a major road that was redone right by my place just eight years ago, and it's already in rough shape. I don't know if they're trying to skimp on materials, but whatever they're doing isn't good for the long run.
The video is a little confusing because at the start, the founder says that the plastics replace a percentage of the bitumen (so act as a binding agent). But at the 3:00 mark one of the workers says that the plastics are mixed the identical way as "any additions to a bitumen product". So that would imply that the plastics are being used as a filler. That would still be a great way to use waste plastic, but it's hardly a "plastic road". It's asphalt, just with a different mix of filler and hopefully a slightly smaller percentage of bitumen.
I agree that roads are less durable today. For one thing they are mostly asphalt. Cement is far better, but much more labor intensive. Example: the Pennsylvania portion of Interstate 80 was built of cement about one foot thick in the early 1970's. When it began to wear out more than 30 years later they used asphalt. Now every winter the trucks going between NYC and Chicago tear it up. Plus you cannot see as well at night with asphalt.
