Paving the Road to an Eco-Friendly Future
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Photo of trial of the Synthetic Fibre Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) located at a bus bay at Commonwealth
(Image Credit: Land Transport Authority)
Photo of highway marker at Woodward Ave., MI
(Image Credit: J.T. Lambrou)
(Image Credit: Amy Khor/Facebook)
November 16, 2023
Taelor Mafnas
10th Grade
George Washington High School
Pavements are the paths that bind our homes, businesses, states, and ultimately, families and communities together. Despite this, many people don’t know the history and processes that contributed to the convenience of our everyday lives. As bicycles became more prominent in the United States during the 1800s, bicyclists came together to kickstart the Good Roads Movement, highlighting the importance of quality roads for religious groups, farmers, and students. The support behind this movement led the federal government to begin looking into funding the transformation of traditional streets and organizations to form for the same cause. Many men in the nation, including George Bartholomew and McClintock, took a crack at creating concrete roads. Although the concrete they created wasn’t resilient against weathering, their work certainly made a lasting impact. In 1909, their efforts paid off, and the first mile of the highway was paved with concrete in Michigan, starting the gradual increase in paved highways. All these factors helped create the foundation for the materials and processes we use today for modern pavement.
Photo of the process used by the LTA in Australia for experimental plastic roads
(Image Credit: Land Transport Authority)
Based on their flexibility, roads comprise two main categories: flexible and rigid. Rigid pavement is your traditional concrete road. The cement concrete lies on top of a sub-base that acts as a shield from water and the pressure from traffic. However, because of the friction from the layer underneath and the shrinking that occurs when it solidifies, cracking will appear in the concrete. This can be remedied by using steel reinforcements that decrease the cracks’ size and increase the strength of the pavement. These roads may be adequate, but they can be expensive. Flexible pavement has numerous benefits, especially in congested areas, depending on the materials they use. They are sprayed with a bitumen called “spray and chip seal” or a slim asphalt coating to strengthen them. These options are both inexpensive, watertight, and last about 10 years. These pavements are maintained by spraying the bitumen coating, making the maintenance process simpler.
Traditional flexible and rigid pavement are both efficient and commonly used. However, organizations located in Australia, India, the United Kingdom, and Thailand have been testing new ways to create ecologically friendly pavement. How are they doing it? They’re experimenting with recyclable plastics! Most of these are sampled through small rural areas, but one particular city-state is thinking bigger and testing it on its busier urban roads. Based in Singapore, the Land Transport Authority (LTA)’s Traffic Road Operations and Road Facilities Management began working to incorporate plastics into their flexible road mixes just this year. They have numerous ways of ensuring their pavements are safe, sturdy, and sustainable. They use inspection vehicles to measure road roughness and skid resistance and found no significant potholes or cracks in over a year, proving that these roads are resilient. Additionally, they collected and tested surface run-off water and groundwater and found no negative impacts on the surrounding environment. These small efforts, not only from Singapore but countries around the globe, ultimately help create the recipe for our roads to be not only tougher but also environmentally safe.
Reference Sources
Benson, Fred J., and Maxwell Gordon Jay. “Road.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.,
www.britannica.com/technology/road#ref71881.
“Concrete Pavement.” Concrete Pavement, PCA - America’s Cement Manufacturers,
https://www.cement.org/cement-concrete/products/concrete-pavement.
Jr., Thomas J. Pasko. “Concrete Pavements - Past, Present, and Future.” Concrete Pavements - Past, Present, and Future | FHWA, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration,
https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/julyaugust-1998/concrete-pavements-past-present-and-future.
Kelly, Susan Croce. “Good Roads Movement.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.,
https://www.britannica.com/event/Good-Roads-movement.
“Lta.Gov.Sg.” Land Transport Authority, Land Transport Authority, 24 Feb. 2023,
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