Roads
Created Saturday 15 August 2020
See also: Transportation
Articles
An Alphabet company is designing a road for autonomous cars in Michigan
The proposed 40-mile corridor will connect Detroit with Ann Arbor.
Igor Bonifacic - 14 August 2020
The state of Michigan wants to build the autonomous roadway of the future. Normally that in itself would be interesting enough, but there’s also the company it’s partnering with to make the project a reality. The state will work with a firm called Cavnue. Cavnue's parent company is Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), which itself is a spinoff of Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs. If you've followed Engadget's coverage of the recently canceled Toronto Smart City project, you'll know all about Sidewalk Labs.
The partnership will see the company test out whether it's viable to build a 40-mile corridor that will connect downtown Detroit to Ann Arbor, with arteries to local destinations like the University of Michigan, the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Michigan Central Station.
https://www.engadget.com/cavnue-michigan-corridor-221520625.html
A Quarter of U.S. Roads Could Be Regularly Flooded in 30 Years
The findings were part of a multi-year study analyzing the impact of flooding and increased rainfall over the next three decades.
Mack DeGeurin - 19 November 2021
The U.S. recently passed a $1 trillion bipartisan spending bill aimed at improving and repairing the country’s decaying infrastructure, but a new report on flooding risks resulting from climate change warns even more investment might be needed.
Within the next 30 years, sea level rise and more intense downpours could put around 26% of U.S. roads underwater on the regular. Nearly 40,000 critical infrastructure facilities, including airports, fire stations, and hospitals, may be at risk of flooding as well.
Those are just a few of the dire findings within a recently released, multiyear analysis conducted last month by nonprofit group First Street Foundation. The report found there are already around 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) of U.S. roads at risk today, and another 200,000 miles (320,000 kilometers) will be put in the danger zone in the coming decades.
https://gizmodo.com/a-quarter-of-u-s-roads-could-be-regularly-flooded-in-3-1848090519
How Good Are American Roads?
Brian Potter - Nov 20, 2024
We’re in an era where US infrastructure is getting a lot of attention. We need a lot of energy infrastructure for decarbonization, and to enable the AI data center buildout. There’s lots of interest in building high-speed rail, mass transit infrastructure, desalination plants in arid regions, and better ports.
One facet of infrastructure that doesn’t get all that much attention is roads, despite the fact that they’re crucial transportation infrastructure, and probably the infrastructure that Americans interact with most directly and consistently. The US has the largest road network in the world, about 4.3 million miles of road, and Americans drive much more than residents in most other countries. Good-quality roads are important for a functioning economy, and rough roads inflict costs in the form of reduced vehicle speeds.
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-good-are-american-roads
Asphalt
The road to hell is paved with asphalt
January 15th, 2024 - Devon Zuegel
Most roads are paved with asphalt. Unfortunately, there are a lot of problems with asphalt. Bricks, cobblestones, and pavers are often much better options, because:
- Asphalt degrades fast, so once you account for maintenance, it's more expensive it first appears Asphalt ages and falls apart quickly. It needs to be replaced after 10-15 years and starts looking pretty crummy well before then. It forms potholes and cracks quickly, especially in extreme climates. It's cheaper to install upfront, but over time, it is much more expensive.
Meanwhile, brick and cobblestone roads can last 150 years or more – in fact the cobblestones still in use in Rome's Appian Way are over 2,000 years old! These materials don't need much maintenance, and if a single brick does crack, that individual piece can be replaced easily.
https://devonzuegel.com/the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-asphalt
Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface
Researcher at Swansea University says tiny plant spores mixed into bitumen can extend surface lifespan by 30%
Ian Sample, Science editor - Mon 3 Feb 2025 01.00 EST
For all motorists, but perhaps the Ferrari-collecting rocker Rod Stewart in particular, it will be music to the ears: researchers have developed a road surface that heals when it cracks, preventing potholes without a need for human intervention.
The international team devised a self-healing bitumen that mends cracks as they form by fusing the asphalt back together. In laboratory tests, pieces of the material repaired small fractures within an hour of them first appearing.
“When you close the cracks you prevent potholes forming in the future and extend the lifespan of the road,” said Dr Jose Norambuena-Contreras, a researcher on the project at Swansea University. “We can extend the surface lifespan by 30%.”
According to the AA, a record £579m was spent in the UK last year repairing vehicles damaged by potholes, up from £474m in 2023. After pledging £1.6bn to repair roads and fix more than 7m potholes in England this year, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said the hazards had “plagued motorists for far too long”.
Potholes typically start from small surface cracks that form under the weight of traffic. These allow water to seep into the road surface, where it causes more damage through cycles of freezing and thawing. Bitumen, the sticky black substance used in asphalt, becomes susceptible to cracking when it hardens through oxidation.
To make the self-healing bitumen, the researchers mixed in tiny porous plant spores soaked in recycled oils. When the road surface is compressed by passing traffic, it squeezes the spores, which release their oil into any nearby cracks. The oils soften the bitumen enough for it to flow and seal the cracks.