When installing a new driveway or a parking lot, the type of material to be used is an important consideration. Typical roads are usually made of asphalt or concrete, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Concrete lasts longer and requires less maintenance, but it is more expensive and is not flexible enough to resist pressure and temperature. Meanwhile, asphalt costs less and is less impacted by pressure and temperature, but it does not last quite as long as concrete and would require more maintenance.
Plastic roads have been gaining popularity due to their advantages over traditional roads. However, this innovation needs more research and development before it becomes a mainstream solution.
Driving the Innovative Solution
The Mizzou Asphalt Pavement and Innovation Lab (MAPIL)researcher collaborated with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) to test a new pavement mixture to replace the traditional asphalt road. The team created a real-world test road along a portion of Interstate 155 in the Missouri Bootheel, using recycled materials such as scrap tires and plastic waste.
The research team had a previous test road installed along Stadium Boulevard in Columbia, Missouri, but their I-155 project takes their mission one step further. Instead of testing four different kinds of recycled materials, their current project will evaluate the real-world effectiveness of nine types of recycled materials in creating an asphalt pavement. The materials include three types of polyethylene, a material used in making plastic grocery bags, and ground tire rubber, a form of disposed scrap tires.
According to MAPIL Director Bill Buttlar, this project allows them to intentionally build the next generation of roads that help the environment and utilize every value of dollar spent on transportation infrastructure. He further explains that when it comes to transportation material research, they need to discover how the materials used in road construction behave in the real world and bond together.
The characteristics of plastics pose challenges in the behavior of pavement mixture, so the team performed extensive small-scale testing for a year before moving it to a larger scale in the field. Through this process, the researchers can evaluate the effectiveness of the mixtures in the field using a mobile research lab that they developed for the Stadium Boulevard and I-155 projects.
Benefits of Plastic Roads
With more research and development, plastic roads offer the potential to revolutionize the method of building and maintaining our road systems. This is because using plastic roads benefits the environment and society.
Increasing the sustainability of plastic mixtures can help reduce the particles that go into landfills or leak into the environment. Aside from it, plastic roads are also found to be more durable and require less maintenance when compared with traditional asphalt roads. Since they can last longer, the need for frequent repairs and resurfacing is reduced. Hence, more money is saved, and less disruption is brought during roadworks.
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