Road sense

The open road of Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

A road surface that can be restored to new with heat?

Self healing asphalt (Stuff article)

This wonder material is demonstrated for us by the very amiable Professor Erik Schlangen from Delft University of Technology.  Erik walks us through a number of problems with traditional asphalt that his team seem to have overcome.  Asphalt is normally waterproofed so moisture sits on the surface, causes tyres to aquaplane, the spray reduces visibility and water is thrown to the side, drenching pedestrians and cyclists.

Asphalt can be mixed with porous materials, allowing moisture to pass through, thus removing the water pooling problem.  Erik points out that traditional asphalt is resonates sound, so it's very noisy.  Making it porous causes both the water and the sound to be absorbed.  Already, things are looking up.

What really sets the Delft project apart is that they've mixed in metal particles to this absorbent compound.  Using an ingenious induction process the surface can be periodically heated to a temperature that causes cracks and  other imperfections in the road to "heal" or close up, thus prolonging the life of the road by twice the normal duration without costly re-surfacing.  It's a bit using solder to fuse materials together.

I hope that the NZTA is paying attention.  Bringing the good professor and his team down to Godzone sounds to me like the perfect place to trial this exciting technology.

Delft University blog on self healing asphalt