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from the what-happens-when-you-drink-and-drive dept.
The Netherlands could become the first country to pave its streets with plastic bottles after Rotterdam city council said it was considering piloting a new type of road surface touted by its creators as a greener alternative to asphalt.
The construction firm VolkerWessels unveiled plans on Friday for a surface made entirely from recycled plastic, which it said required less maintenance than asphalt and could withstand greater extremes of temperature– between -40C and 80C. Roads could be laid in a matter of weeks rather than months and last about three times as long, it claimed.
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The plastic roads are lighter, reducing the load on the ground, and hollow, making it easier to install cables and utility pipelines below the surface.Sections can be prefabricated in a factory and transported to where they are needed, reducing on-site construction, while the shorter construction time and low maintenance will mean less congestion caused by roadworks. Lighter materials can also be transported more efficiently.
Can plastic really last that long, exposed to loads and UV? I've had the plastic cases of electronics literally crumble to dust because they were sitting next to sunny windows...
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Interesting) by seeprime on Saturday July 11 2015, @03:43PM
Pultrusions made from fiberglass and polyester resin (the stuff ladders are made from) has been shown to hold up well outdoors. It's used on some oil rigs. San Francisco's BART uses pultrusions on its third rail covers. There is one issue for any plastic material used outside. The surface needs to be coated, or have tough UV reflective material broadcast onto the surface to maximize the material lifespan. BART used high end coatings from Sandstrom Products that were guaranteed to last 20 years. The problem here is that a surface coating will quickly wear off when used on a road. Look at how often road line stripes need to be repainted. In the US Midwest snow plows will rip a surface off in short order, exposing the somewhat fragile plastic to direct UV rays. Adding UV absorbers throughout the material would be quite expensive as you'd need to use about 1% by weight along with the $30 per pound cost of the UV absorber. All this makes me believe that road surfaces are an improbable use of recycled plastics. It's likely that a low cost solution to short plastic wear life will someday be discovered. I look forward to learning what they actually come up with as roads would be a great use of a material that seems destined for trash heaps or park benches, when recycled. It may turn out that plastics make a great base for a thin asphalt topcoat.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday July 11 2015, @04:55PM
Snow might be a problem in the midwest, but unless the Gulf stream moves, it shouldn't be a big problem in the Netherlands. I lived in Amsterdam for about five years a few decades ago, and I remember it snowing once.
(Score: 1) by seeprime on Saturday July 11 2015, @05:08PM
Point well made sir! I presume that this technology would spread. In such case plastics could still be used as the underlayer if not the topcoat.