A New Type of Road – New Road Technologies

Khalil Bryan

June 2, 2020
9:31 am

What do we really know of our road design? And how has our road design been updated in the past 2 or 3 decades to accommodate new technologies, new materials and improve our driving experience?

We have long looked at road design as being simply a utilitarian tool. A utility or a material that gets us from point A to point B, and that over time is simply an expense that needs to be repaired. It is a wonder that we have not yet looked at our roads as an infrastructure to enhance other industries, provide conduits for other services or provide a future proof solution to transport needs.

In the Caribbean we have a pervasive problem that roads are built but often not properly maintained. Utilities are often buried under the road and frequently need to be dug up in the need to service those same utilities. In most cases this damages the road and leaves the road integrity and road surfaces in a worse condition than before.

In a previous article we discussed how our company, CTS mapped the road surface conditions of a majority of roads in Barbados. The poor road conditions and roughness are often due to constant repairs to roads to fix ageing utility infrastructure and damages vehicles’ suspension.

Could we design a road to be modular so that when:

Road repairs need to be done, one section could be literally lifted out removed and replaced with an equally good section?
Utility repairs need to be done, the road could be opened, the repair is completed, and then the road surface replaced without causing any damage to the physical Road?
We complete road repairs to the road surface integrity, we restore it to 100% rather than constantly reducing the road surface quality and integrity?

Innovations in Road surface technology

Since 2010 there have been a number of innovations in road surface technology. This video shows different applications of potential road surface technologies, moving:

From Roads that incorporate used tyres to reduce wear and tear.
To a modular road that allows for future advances in technology, is self draining, and provides an even better driving experience and is currently available – named ” the plastic road”.

There are two major “Plastic Road” Technologies.

A road technology that reimagines what the road should be and how it should function. It is a cabinet for utilities, allows for better road drainage and future proofs the road by later allowing lines for electric car charging or other utilities under our roadways (video here)

A road surface made from plastic that replaces current asphalt road surface. – This is good an innovative, but does not address road repair and the construction of roads (See this concept here)

We will focus on idea number one since it addresses multiple key points for road design:

It is modular, allowing deploy
Cabling and other utility infrastructure should be able to be inside of it
It should be more durable than other road design
It should anticipate future developments and accommodate them

Plastic Road.eu has created a novel road platform that pushes our road design into the future. The Plastic road is incredibly durable, modular and future proof and sustainable.

The road is built with a hollow space in the design that can be used to store water or as space for utility cables and pipes.

Modular, reduces utility poles, increases ease of access – the road with a cabinet to run our utilities through will reduce utility poles which become a danger in hurricane strikes. Additionally The road can be opened up in sections to service utilities and can then be replaced with no damage to the road surface and at a fraction of the cost to maintain it is a no-brainer for ministries sand municipalities to implement.
Improved Road safety & Improved Water Drainage – The road surface (grip coefficient) is dramatically improved, making roads safer to drive on at a lower cost. Additionally the road drainage is dramatically improved and further allows vehicles to drive more safely on the roads.
Prefabrication – Everything on and around the road can be prefabricated including road markings and guardrails. This would improve the economies of scale and allow the product to be even more cost competitive than traditional road technologies.
Sustainable Addresses Plastic Waste * – The current example uses recycled plastic and helps to address the global social problem of plastic waste in an innovative and sustainable way.

Smart City Sensors – With the creation of a modular road and one that has under road “cabinets”, the road or under road utilities can outfitted with sensors which could detect items from utility failure, traffic flow and even environmental conditions such as air quality. This would allow governments and utility companies to quickly respond to gather data and quickly respond to situations before they become a problem.

Scalable – The concept offers opportunities for further innovation. Examples include solar heated roads, light poles, and traffic loop sensors

* – Sustainable if manufactured with plastic waste, however this platform could be manufactured using a plethora of other materials including concrete, hempcrete and recycled plastic.

At CTS we are excited about development such as this, because we can see the obvious benefits. Roads are key infrastructure for our society – we use them daily and having poor roads, means that we spend more money in repairs, have a worse commute experience and spend more in taxes to pave, re-pave and repair roads. One of our Co-Founders, Khalil Bryan, has long seen the opportunity for us to innovate on road design to:

Improve utility storage and density.
Perform utility repairs more effectively without causing long interruptions or repairs.
Make roads safer by improving drainage.
Create longer lasting roads
Integrate with Smart City tools to enable better monitoring

The ‘PlasticRoad.eu’ concept is one of many concepts that could change how we even think about roads and our road network. I would in Barbados and the Caribbean and ultimately in the world.