‘Anti-ageing’ solution for England’s roads

A solution to increase the lifespan of England’s roads may be on the way thanks to a new treatment that aims to prevent deterioration of roads throughout the country, and therefore reduce the rate at which they require maintenance.

The new material, an asphalt mix bound together by a new bitumen, that has been found to be significant more resistant to the elements, such as sun, water and air, ultimately meaning that roads are more flexible and damage is less likely to occur.

This new solution couldn’t have come at a better time, in light of a recent report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) that has found that there is more than £10 billion required to bring roads back into an appropriate standard. Chair of the AIA, Rick Green, has suggested that simply filling these potholes does nothing to ‘improve the resilience of the network’.

With the introduction of this new ‘anti-ageing’ solution, it could be the ideal time to break the cycle of simply repairing roads, but rather resurfacing with a more durable and long-lasting material.

The first road to be surfaced with this new material is a busy section of the A43, near Silverstone in Northamptonshire, where it will be put to the test under the extremely high traffic levels to ensure it performs as well as hoped. If testing is successful, then we will likely see re-surfacing works throughout England over the coming years.

Rick Ashton, Market Development Manager at Total and Tarmac, the company that has developed this new road surface in partnership with Highways England, has said:

“These life-long binders will ultimately lead towards our vision of net zero carbon by 2050 by reducing roadworks, saving manufacturing, transport and installation energy and the associated emissions.”

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