thewayne | New asphalt that contains its own de-icer!

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Very clever, doesn't sound like it would add significantly to the cost per mile of road as it's an additive, not a replacement for something important.

They reformulated salt so it's not sodium chloride, combined it with some other stuff, then micro-encapsulated it. Mixed it with the top asphalt layer and laid it down on a freeway offramp. And it stayed ice-free! Every time someone drives across it, it ruptures some of the micro-encapsulated stuff and it releases, constantly fighting the ice. It's estimated that it could last five to seven years.

https://newatlas.com/materials/asphalt-salt-additive-ice-roads/

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

armiphlage

I doubt the chemical will leach out of more than the top millimetre or so of asphalt, so the useful effect would drop off rapidly. Still, useful while it lasts.

From:

thewayne

Roads and resurfacing are normally thought of in decade increments, but they do sometimes get damaged and need repair, or at least resurfacing on a spot basis. Without it being implemented and actually tested for decades, "estimate" is the best they can do, I expect.

From:

disneydream06

That is very cool, but it sounds like a lot of repaving.
Wonder how much it would cost to do my driveway? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

From:

kaishin108

That would be wonderful!!

We need it on side streets here as they don't plow! LOL!!

From:

thewayne

Heh. I doubt it would work. I am guessing that the process expects regular traffic to keep the microcapsules bursting and providing the melt stuff. You're not going to have that kind of traffic in a driveway.

From:

thewayne

Plowing creates additional problems for us, even though it is vital. Our house is on a corner, and below grade. A decade+ back they paved our corner, which produced a hump at the mouth of our driveway. When they plow, that hump can become ginormous! I make it a point that when I run my snow thrower, I shave that thing down as much as possible so we have a good chance of getting in and out.

From:

disneydream06

My employer has some heated sidewalks in different areas.
Dumbest one is the short sidewalk from the employee parking ramp to the street. All of 15 feet maybe.
Then you cross the street and it's regular sidewalk all the way down to the hospital.
Then they built a new building on the hospital and after a year or so they got somebody's family to donate millions to put his name on the building and after all that they dug up the entrance sidewalk to the building and put heating under it.
Then downtown around the main clinic building they have more heated sidewalks.
Must be nice. :o
Would love to know the cost to put in and maintain. :o

From:

silveradept

That's an interesting idea, and I can see it having practical effects in more rural spaces (or very hilly ones) to keep those roads safer and less dangerous. I'd be even more impressed with it if they could re-seed the space with more of the microcapsules and get another several years out of it.

From:

rain_gryphon

How very clever! It's always the obvious-in-retrospect ideas that amaze.

From:

thewayne

Yeah, no info on price, I imagine it's still a research project and not yet a commercial product.

From:

thewayne

Well, with a 5-7 year lifespan estimated, a lot of roads get torn up and rebuilt, or at least resurfaced, in that time frame. I don't know that just sprinkling it on top would be enough as I would expect the microcapsules to literally wash away in a heavy rain. I think about the goober drivers that I see up here when it snows. I remember one time I was going down the mountain to meet a friend who was leaving town for lunch. It was snowing pretty heavy. I have an AWD late-model Subaru Crosstrek with 8" of ground clearance and snow tires. I was being VERY cautious as the road crews were running behind on plowing. And I saw numerous cars heading up the mountain in front-wheel drive cars, no snow tires, sliding all over the place - frequently off-road. We could certainly benefit from it up here, that's for sure!