One sign the pothole problem in Europe is increasing is when researchers come up with new and novel ways of managing them. In this case, it involves brightly colored asphalt.
In Europe, potholes are no less a problem than in the U.S. Roads built there before and after World War II are reaching the latter stages of their expected lifespan, and money is lacking to keep up on repairs.

The website WhatCar.com reports that motorists in the U.K. are spending £3 million per day on car damage caused by potholes. Average repair bills per car include £277 for wheels and tires and £312 for suspension work. On the heels of a particularly bad winter in the 2010-2011 winter, the country has added an additional £100 million ($159 million US) to fund road repairs. (These numbers are roughly comparable with the costs of pothole damage to cars in America, it should be noted.)
Finding potholes would not seem to be the problem, what with cars sustaining so much damage as they ply their way across the roads, straßen, straten, rues, strade, ulice, gator, utcákon, улицы, δρόμους, and strydoedd* of Europe. But at least one preventive measure being pursued is toward early detection of road wear through a color-coded system.
Automotive website <a href="http://www.caradisiac.com/Technique-du-jaune-fluo-pour-eviter-les-nids-de-poule-sur-la-route-39553.htm" target="_blank">Caradisiac.com</a> reports that Italian researchers are testing a way to put in a fluorescent yellow layer just under the top layer of asphalt. As a road wears or when cracks develop, the yellow will appear as a sign that asks for a repair on that precise spot. Presumably, road repair crews can simply drive the highways and byways, looking for the yellow color.
"The idea is not to propose an invincible tarmac (pavement)," says the site. "But rather to prevent potholes that form due to wear and time." Early detection of fissures and other breaks in pavement can prevent larger and more expensive problems from developing when those nascent potholes are filled or otherwise repaired with sealants.
Presumably, the neon yellow also serves as warning to motorists before the pothole is actually repaired.
*"roads" as translated into the languages of Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Greece and Wales.

Europeans Test Neon Asphalt Layer As Pothole Alert

When the City of New York repaved a section of Fifth Avenue twenty years ago along the front of the Plaza Hotel with something called glassphalt, the pavement sparkled from tiny flecks of recycled glass in the aggregate mix. But it was neither the recycled nature of the glass, nor the resilience with which the material can stand up to the traffic and temperature swings of the Big Apple, that caught the attention of the hotel owner, Donald Trump. The famous real estate magnate just liked how the street glistened.
And he wanted more of this glassphalt, according to a 1991 Knight-Ridder wire story. True to form, Trump demanded that the other streets ringing the hotel get the same shimmering, glass-infused pavement.
Glassphalt has been used in other parts of the U.S. and across the world in the twenty years since. In fact, it first arose in the 1970s as a potential way to recycle the considerable volume of amber, blue, yellow, green and clear glass bottles in the waste stream. Annually, approximately seven million tons of glass are disposed of in landfills.
The problem with recycling glass is that mixed colors in the recycling stream mean that a specific color cannot be achieved – clear bottles cannot use amber material, for example. Which is what led, 40 years ago, to exploration of other uses of glass where color would not be an issue. Researchers found that by mixing it into pavement, where color was irrelevant, it could work functionally and possibly in a cost-effective way.
The economics of turning that tonnage of waste glass into pavement is enticing. Using it could reduce municipal costs associated with disposal. And on a pound-for-pound basis, crushed glass processing is sometimes less expensive than gravel and sand. And while extensive data on the durability of asphalt roads seems lacking, we know anecdotally that some of those roads from the 1970s on forward have held up pretty well. It just might be better pavement in certain applications.
So why is glassphalt not used routinely in road building? There are several problems:
Variable rock economics. At the most, the glass content would comprise between 10 and 20 percent of the pavement. So standard asphalt-making equipment and procedures would always be used, but this would reduce the costs from aggregate (crushed rock) that makes up the bulk of asphalt. Aggregate pricing varies from location to location, a function of raw sourcing and the distance required for transport. So in some areas, glass provides a cost-effective dilution, but in other areas not.
Municipal variables (recycling and asphalt manufacture). According to the Glassphalt Paving Handbook (Asphalt Institute Manual Series No. 4, 1989, University of Missouri-Rolla), "The best possibility for sustained production of glassphalt is in communities with municipal asphalt plants, because the community can make a direct correlation between the extra costs incurred in glassphalt installation and the savings from diverted solid waste tip fees." The handbook goes on to say this is not the case in most of the U.S.
Not a simple substitution. The Glassphalt Paving Handbook also makes a point of how you cannot simply feed broken or crushed glass into the aggregate. After collecting the glass (by whichever method the municipality uses), it needs to be processed to a specific size (aggregate), after which batch modifiers must be altered along with the asphalt manufacturing operation.
Limited applications. While the presence of glass in the pavement presents no danger to humans or damage to vehicle tires, the skid resistance of glassphalt pavement is slightly less than that of standard asphalt. This then limits its use to lower-speed roadways – and prevents it from being used to build 65 mph highways.
In summary, the Clean Washington Center, a Seattle non-profit group that serves as a clearinghouse on recyclable materials of all kinds, says that "a great number of glassphalt demonstration projects have been performed in cities around the country. Most of these projects have not progressed past the pilot state because of economics."
Separately, a 1999 study conducted (by the NYC Bureau of Management Audit) of glass recycling programs in eight major cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Philadelphia, Baltimore and San Francisco – found that only New York was sending its glass to glassphalt plants, and by that time it was not actually used by the city but sold to contractors working elsewhere. The program has apparently been discontinued since then because, according to Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, "it made the roads too slippery in the rain and too shiny."
Donald Trump might take issue with Esposito on the latter problem. Since when is there something that sparkles too much?
Durability of glassphalt
But even if used only for slow-zone streets, or as pothole fill, might the economics of glassphalt change if considered over the life of the roads?
Donald Schaefer, once the mayor of Baltimore, later the governor of Maryland and after that the state comptroller, believes it was a high-quality, long-lasting material. In 2000, he told Baltimore City Paper writer Charles Cohen, "If I had to do it all over again, I'd do most of the streets in the city of Baltimore with glassphalt. It worked out well." Only one Baltimore area contractor was using the material as of ten years ago, and only as a pavement undercoating.
An article (January 2005) in Resource Recycling bemoans the fact that recycled glass is subject to commodity market pricing fluctuations and thus most uses for the material make for unreliable customers. But that's not always the case. The article cites Adams County, Wisconsin, where the price of cullet (crushed glass) is lower than hauled-in stone aggregate. The county claims their parking lots made with glassphalt "feature no potholes and require much less maintenance compared to projects constructed with gravel, saving even more money in the long term. Glass is also much easier to move around than gravel, according to contractors."
So while glassphalt can be cost effective and perhaps superior to standard asphalt in some applications, it is hard to imagine it becoming a widespread substitution for crushed stone in making durable roads. The relative economics simply do not work.
And there's no one that Donald Trump can fire to change that.
If not glass, how about polypropylene fabric?
Paving fabrics are another "unusual" road building technique that is used on 100 million square yards of road every year, according to Ray Myers, the executive director of the Asphalt Interlayer Association.
While there are some variations between the handful of manufacturers of paving fabric, the make up of waterproofing membranes (also known as paving fabrics or reinforcing fabrics) as originally developed by Phillips Petroleum Company in the 1970s are a non-woven polypropylene sheet, non-woven but needlepunched, that is heat-bonded on one side, along with a liquid asphalt tack coat. It is typically laid onto old pavement, especially where there are cracks, and then overlaid with new asphalt. An important feature of this material is its flexibility.
Pavement fabrics have one, very important job with regard to pavement preservation: to prevent moisture from entering. Studies show that use of paving fabrics extend the life of the pavement by 100% to 300%. But they cannot be placed on any existing pavement: this system can only work when placed on stable, even if cracked ("alligatored"), roads. It is not a pothole repair method.

Glassphalt: Have Roads Made with Recycled Glass Changed Pavement?

Pothole.info continues to be the go-to source of information on potholes and how they affect our lives.
According to television news reporter Mark Albert on KSAX-TV in Minneapolis, “The website Pothole.info says, ‘drivers will spend $330 each year repairing your car from these hazards.’”
That was the bad news. But there may be better news on the prairie horizon, says Albert. He notes that the potholes in the Twin Cities in 2011 are “historic.” Addressing that problem, <a href="http://ksax.com/article/stories/S2011729.shtml?cat=10230">Albert spoke</a> with a road crew working with pothole repair material from a Mendota Heights, Minn. company, TCC Materials. They are testing a pothole repair method using taconite aggregates, derived from iron ore mined in the considerable iron range areas of Minnesota.

Reportedly a more expensive patching material than typically used by most municipalities, it was developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota Duluth, who are working on efficient and economic uses of mining byproducts. The Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI), based at the University, hopes to transform 125 million tons of these byproducts into environmentally responsible and economically viable road construction and repair materials. In a study published in 2009 (“Using recycled taconite as alternative aggregate in asphalt pavements,” by Raul Velasquez, Mugurel Turos, Ki Hoon Moon, Larry Zanko and Mihai Marasteanu, Construction and Building Materials, Volume 23, Issue 9), one tested taconite aggregate was found to “perform slightly better than the mixtures prepared with standard aggregates” currently used in pothole repair.
Pothole.info provides news and analysis of how companies, institutions, individuals and local, state and national governments in the U.S. and abroad are addressing the challenges of pavement preservation and pothole abatement. The site includes a news feed as well as original articles and other content as a resource to individuals and organizations looking for solutions to the increasing number of potholes and other aspects of infrastructure decline. Part of this reporting includes coverage of emerging technologies in pavement construction and maintenance.

Will Iron Ore Byproducts be the Next Pothole Repair Material?

The New York City Department of Transportation and motorists on Staten Island, New York experienced last fall what has become a common problem in an increasingly wired world: A utility cut was made to a recently repaved stretch of road. The cut was filled with temporary-patch asphalt, but it was deteriorating rapidly just weeks later – and drivers were not happy.
This has happened countless times in recent years, as businesses and residential areas demand greater access to broadband cable. DOTs and utility companies try to coordinate schedules to the effect that paving is done last, after the various utility lines are laid. But it doesn’t always work out that way. Paving and utility companies work on separate timetables for unrelated reasons.

But as a utility company in the Cayman Islands and its cable-installation contractor proved recently, there’s a smart way to work around this problem. It’s called micro trenching, which involves a narrow, almost imperceptible slit cut into the pavement to accommodate thin cables. It enables quick installation of the cable with minimal damage to the pavement.
Two innovations have enabled this streamlined approach to utility cable installation, which involves a cut less than an inch wide for a 12-inch-deep channel.
One technological advancement is with the cable itself, a “micro conduit” that has up to seven channels for seven wires, vertically stacked on top of each other instead of a rounder, fatter bundling as is found in traditional cable.
The second innovation is how the trench itself is cut. An air-cooled saw cuts the narrow trench to a width just wide enough to accommodate the stacked-up cable. To do this, an advanced blade manufacturing process provides a narrower blade that is just as strong as thicker blades. Traditional pavement cutters are cooled by water, which is a messy process that takes up more time in the clean up phase.
Less traffic disruption during and after under-pavement cable installation
Micro trenching might radically change this difficult marriage between utilities and pavement for the better. It’s faster, so there is less time spent holding up vehicular traffic on the roads where it is being used. While a relatively new process without a lot of experience on which to base a cost-analysis, it appears to be a less expensive process than with the four-inches-to-six-foot wide cuts that plague fast-moving vehicles. The pothole-like shocks to cars traveling over utility cuts are eliminated, as are the opportunities for new potholes to form.
One such micro trench was installed by Slimlines Trenching Ltd. in the Cayman Islands. The contractor was working for Logic, a voice-Internet-cable TV utility on the islands.
Richard Corbin, managing director for Slimlines Trenching, shared with us how the micro trenches were dug, why they are possible – and how these road cuts were later filled to avoid pavement deterioration and pothole formation further down the line.
<div class="indent">
Pothole.info: What are the dimensions – width and depth – that make up the micro trenches?
Corbin: We are currently cutting a .75" x 12" deep trench in the center of our capital and business district of George Town, Grand Cayman and have also cut .95" x 12" in some areas as well for the installation of two conduits which are placed side by side for increased capacity as required.
Pothole.info: I read that microtrenching about eight years ago was problematic, in part because the trenches weren’t as deep. What is new today that enables micro trenching to be workable?
Corbin: Advances in equipment and conduit manufacturing processes have enabled equipment manufactures the ability to scale down the size of the equipment and trenching attachments required. Advances in the blade manufacturing process enabled blades to be narrower while maintaining their strength, along with the use of high volume vacuum systems allowing the blades to be air cooled, therefore extending the life of the blade while eliminating the need for water cooling and the messy clean up and residue associated with the same.
Another improvement is the availability of micro-conduit, which is narrow and vertically rigid, along with advances in fiber technology, which have reduced the overall size of fiber. Is it about flat cables versus round? In our case it is more so about the conduit, with the conduit being narrow, flat and vertically rigid. It was perfectly suited for our customer’s needs.
Pothole.info: From a construction costs perspective, does the method compare favorably to traditional trench cuts?
Corbin: It is hard to say with certainty, but based on our experience and the feedback we are receiving it seems to compare favorably (this is the first trenching project we have been involved in – [there are many] variations in conditions and requirements involved in trenching). Micro-trenching has a considerably lower impact on the environment and is neighbor friendly, with minimal disruptions to vehicular and pedestrian traffic due to the reduced size of the required work zone. In some cases it requires only half a lane to be closed; reinstatement is completed simultaneously with the lane being reopened to traffic immediately following the reinstatement, which in most cases is a matter of two to three hours.
Pothole.info: You used cold mix asphalt for sealing. Is this a material you have worked with in the past?
Corbin: As mentioned above, this is the first microtrenching project we have been involved in. Therefore it is also the first time we used asphalt for reinstatement. However, based on our research the <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.com/video/micro-trenching-features-ez-street.php">EZ Street cold patch was the product best suited to micro trenching</a> and available for our needs and conditions (relating to the reinstatement of the narrow trench while satisfying the requirements of our local National Roads Authority).
Pothole.info: How was it to work with and did you find it preferable over a hot mix?
Corbin: We found the product consistent and easy to work with from the manageable 35-pound bag size. It almost creeps into the trench by itself, as it has a pliable nature and is easy to cleanup.
Pothole.info: Do the costs and performance features of microtrenching suggest easier, less expensive installation of cabling overall, that it might extend broadband and other services further and faster?
Corbin: Overall the micro-trenching process seems to be faster resulting in realized time savings. When delivering new services it can mean the difference between being first to market and third or fourth.
</div>
While there can be many factors that lead to roadway congestion and gridlock, construction-related projects is one of the major contributors to traffic tie-ups. As Slimlines Trenching illustrates, cutting down those times and spaces where lanes need to be blocked can reduce motorist inconvenience – and costs.
In a study conducted ten years ago, the Texas Transportation Institute determined that in the 75 largest metropolitan areas of the U.S., delays wasted $67.5 billion in lost worker productivity and 5.7 billion gallons of gasoline (21.6 billion liters) during 3.6 billion vehicle-hours of delays each year. Costs to individual drivers in such delays range from $200 per year in smaller cities to $1000 in more populous metro areas.
In other words, what’s good for reducing costs to utilities for cable installation is also good for municipalities and states that are responsible for pavement quality and pothole prevention. Motorists benefit in reduced traffic tie-ups during the construction, lower costs for car repair from pothole and utility cut damage to tires and axels – and, those motorists may get better and less expensive utility service, too.
Our bet is that there are residents of Staten Island in New York who would wholly support use of micro trenching in future cable installations.

An End to the Utility-Cut Bump? Micro Trenching Emerges as Kind to Pavement, Motorists

Few words send chills up the spine of landlords like “premises liability.” This is an area of personal injury law that enables an injured party – renters, guests of renters, even delivery people – to sue the owner of the property for failure to provide a safe environment. Every day, there are 25,000 slip, trip and fall accidents in the U.S., which account for 21 percent of all ER visits, according to the National Safety Council.
So what could lead to such accidents and the possible lawsuit to follow? Broken sidewalks, rotted steps and slippery, just-mopped floors are among them.
But just because something like a sidewalk has a few chipped up, loose or otherwise deteriorated sections should not require a complete reconstruction of that walkway. The labor and materials involved could costs many hundreds and even thousands of dollars, which is not something most property owners relish in a time of significantly-reduced real estate values.

This landlord found a creative solution in <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.com">EZ STREET cold mix asphalt</a>. The product comes in 35 and 50 pound bags, which are handy to keep on premises for times when needed. It also requires no messy mixing or heating. You literally can use a garden shovel or a small hand trowel to drop the asphalt into cracks and holes (remove loose debris with the same trowel and maybe a broom before filling).
From there, it’s a simple matter of tamping down the mix, which can be done easily and gently with a sledgehammer and flat board or any other heavy blunt object. In areas of heavy traffic, such as a frequently-used driveway, leave a slightly raised crown so that the car can tamp it down further. But a flush-finish is safest where only human foot traffic is involved.
Did it matter that the do-it-himselfer was repairing concrete with asphalt? No, this cold mix asphalt will adhere just as well to adjoining concrete as it would other hard surfaces. Aesthetically, it might be appear different (doesn’t that one crack look a little like a map of Italy?). But compared to the gaping cracks and weeds that were previously growing there, it’s a marked improvement. And no lawyer can say you neglected the safety of the sidewalk.
<div id="attachment_261" style="width: 578px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://www.pothole.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Landlord-1.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-261" class="size-full wp-image-261" title="Landlord-1" src="/uploads/landlord-1-79a0c2f5.jpg" alt="concrete sidewalk pothole patch" width="568" height="289" /></a>The repair in the photo took less than 20 minutes to do by an inexperienced, non-professional. </div>
The repair was done in the waning days of a Chicago summer – anticipating the snow shovels to scrape this pavement a few months down the road. But what if a hole or crack opens up during the winter? This brand of cold mix asphalt works in all weather conditions, and can even be pressed into place in standing water.

Landlord Worried About Broken Sidewalks, Finds Permanent Fix With Cold Mix

Anyone who ever leaves home knows the problems with roads, highways, parking lots and driveways. Most aging pavement in America, due to use, time and neglect, is in dire need of <a href="http://www.asphaltrepair.net" target="_blank">asphalt repair</a>. But highway maintenance is so lagging that many people assume it is a losing battle.
That assumption is wrong. Fixing any kind of pavement, public or private, as it begins to show the signs of deterioration proves the axiom, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The fact of the matter is that cracks left untended become potholes. Potholes not repaired, or patched poorly, can lead to complete road deterioration.
The Federal Highway Administration says that state transportation departments spent $17.7 billion on new roads in 2006, compared to $32.7 billion (about 50 percent) on existing road pavement preservation. While this proportion reflects good sense in maintaining the significant ($1 trillion) investment in roads built since the middle of the 20th century, most departments of transportation concur it falls short of the need.
Smart asphalt repair uses the best materials at the right time, which defines smart pavement management. A dollar spent on small pavement preservation methods can save seven dollars a few years later. This fact cannot be overemphasized. Asphalt repair is the equivalent to nutrition and exercise in human health. Do it right every day and not only will repair costs be lower in the future, but the vitality and performance of that road will be better throughout the lifespan of the road.
But beyond budgetary savings, timely asphalt repair can bring economic advantages. Consider what quality roads can do for a city, state or region:
Tourism: Americans take approximately one billion domestic trips per year, which generates $471 billion in expenditures. Additionally, more than 50 million international visitors land on our shores and spend weeks exploring our country. When destinations are more accessible, those tourists and their dollars reach beyond core urban centers to suburbs, exurbs and wilderness locations.
Limit accidents: There are many causes of car and truck accidents, poor pavement among them.More than 3.3 million people are injured, and 45,000 people are killed, in transportation-related accidents every year. Costs associated with traffic accidents are in excess of $150 billion.
Reduce congestion: Time lost to standstill traffic annually tallies more than 4.5 billion hours, while gasoline consumption exceeds 6.8 billion gallons. Hot-mix asphalt fixes to potholes, done the old-fashioned way, typically employs a “throw-and-go” approach that ties up rush hour traffic and leaves a stretch of rough pavement that lasts weeks, months or years. But innovations that bring advanced pavement preservation methods (EZ Street Cold Mix Asphalt is one) creates a smoother road on the first repair, is easier to use and lasts longer than hot mix asphalt. What might otherwise be monthly road repairs becomes something far less frequent.
Some think that keeping up the quality of roads, highways, streets and parking lots may be a hopeless task. But a thoughtful analysis of strategic asphalt repair reveals that the benefits can easily outweigh the costs.

Asphalt Repair — Fixing the roads is possible, economically beneficial

[vc_row type="in_container" full_screen_row_position="middle" column_margin="default" scene_position="center" text_color="dark" text_align="left" overlay_strength="0.3" shape_divider_position="bottom" bg_image_animation="none"][vc_column column_padding="no-extra-padding" column_padding_position="all" background_color_opacity="1" background_hover_color_opacity="1" column_link_target="_self" column_shadow="none" column_border_radius="none" width="1/1" tablet_width_inherit="default" tablet_text_alignment="default" phone_text_alignment="default" overlay_strength="0.3" column_border_width="none" column_border_style="solid" bg_image_animation="none"][vc_column_text]As States Turn to Pavement Preservation, Road Repair Methods Improve
The economics affecting road building and road repair in the current economy are pretty straightforward. Costs for everything are up, funding is down – and road disintegration continues its natural course, unabated.
Federal funding assistance for new roads and road preservation is now stimulated with an infusion of cash from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. Often, however, red tape and politics add speed bumps and lead to dead ends. Fortunately, some states are finding ways to make it work.
Population growth and economic recovery, when it comes, will only create a greater need for navigable roads, free of hazardous and <a href="https://www.ezstreetasphalt.com/case-studies/pothole-repair/pothole-vigilante/">damaging potholes</a>. The present way we build and maintain roads and bridges will be difficult to sustain – unless new technologies are developed and adopted.
This is a concern that is echoed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in a joint report it issued with the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) in 2009. It says highway funding is "in an unprecedented crisis." In summary, the Highway Trust Fund – which comes from the national 18.4 cents per gallon gas tax – is "just about broke," purchasing power for road building and repair have been eroded by inflation, and the political climate is unlikely to allow increased revenue from drivers (with per gallon taxes and tolls). Environmental concerns, while laudable, are directing more funds toward public transit and railroads, further challenging America's aging highway system.
<blockquote>
VMT – vehicle miles traveled – increased from 2.4 trillion in 1993 to 3.0 trillion in 2007 (the current recession has reduced that slightly to about 2.9 trillion).
</blockquote>
Time, weather, and moisture are the enemy of road maintenance, but so is population increase, which is about as likely as rain in Oregon. People use roads, as do manufacturers and merchants who ship products to ever more populated cities and towns. Some facts to consider:
<ul type="disc">
<li>The current U.S. population of 305 million is projected to increase to 420 million by year 2050.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>VMT – vehicle miles traveled – increased from 2.4 trillion in 1993 to 3.0 trillion in 2007 (the current recession has reduced that slightly to about 2.9 trillion).</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Truck freight is expected to double from current levels by 2030.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Optimally, road and highway maintenance should receive $166 billion from government funding. Current spending on surface transportation (roads and highways) is less than $90 billion per year.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>The 2009 federal economic stimulus funds add an additional $27 billion to the surface transportation budget, but those funds are to be spent over at least two years, and so the annual allowance remains well below ideal.</li>
</ul>
It is not enough, not by a long shot, and the problem will only get worse. Solutions are sorely needed.
Preserve and save 
Roads are like people in that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, in that routine maintenance can significantly prolong the life of a road. Preventive maintenance is economically smart, as long as the plan for pavement preservation is smartly devised and implemented.
In 2008, Michigan Department of Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle told the Pavement Preservation Journal, "It costs $1 to keep a road in good shape for every $7 you would have to spend on reconstruction." Steudel also noted how bad pavement diminishes road safety, which places further economic burdens on individuals, families, healthcare systems and insurance companies. "It's another drag on the economy."
One organization working for solutions is the Foundation for Pavement Preservation (FPP), a non-profit industry group that looks at roads as investments. Rather than regarding maintenance as a cost – how it is typically seen in a budget line item, subject to political costcutting – FPP urges local, state and federal government decision makers to consider money spent on preservation as a means of maximizing the original investment.
Cutting through the red tape 
The Illinois Department of Transportation, IDOT, takes the position that preventive maintenance treatments are a means to improve the functional condition of the road network, "reducing the overall rate of deterioration of the pavement asset." IDOT also prioritizes maintaining a high level of service and minimizing what it calls the "network's life-cycle cost," a multi-year calculation that facilitates long-range, comprehensive highway quality management. The state agency also provided guidelines and training to local municipalities on road preservation, and it involved private industry in the overall program.
What Illinois does that many states do not is use federal funds for pavement preservation; other states instead reserve those funds for large projects undertaken every few years, such as new road construction.
This is where it gets tricky: Bidding procedures in Illinois and other states often differ from federal bidding requirements, which often stands in the way of using federal funds for pavement preservation. IDOT particularly encountered difficulties using hot mix asphalt overlays due to its high expense and perceived long-term ineffectiveness.
Pavement preservation best practices 
Still, some states are finding ways to do it right. The Asphalt Pavement Alliance makes an annual award to states that maintain roads that are at least 35 years old and which had at least 13 years between paving resurfacing. Other criteria for the award are excellence in design, quality in construction and driver value, factored against traffic levels on the section of road being evaluated for the honor. Here are 2009 award recipients:
Washington State: The Washington State Department of Transportation says its entire highway system would cost $266 billion to replace, including smaller bridges and the purchase of land. Starting from this asset management standpoint, WSDOT invests in infrastructure as a matter of safety, environmental concern and mobility.
WSDOT won its Perpetual Pavement Award for a four-mile section of Interstate 5 near the city of Everett, Washington. This particular stretch of highway handles more than 60,000 vehicles per day, 4,400 of which are heavy trucks.
According to WSDOT's press release announcing this award, the agency's "pavement preservation goal is to preserve state highways at the lowest cost per year of pavement life." WSDOT's 2007 pavement condition survey found that 93 percent of state-owned roads rate as "fair" or better. The state has budgeted $328 million for 2009-2011 in pavement preservation projects.
Mississippi: This state received its Perpetual Pavement Award for a 10.9-mile section of U.S. Highway 90 in Jackson County, which connects coastal communities of Ocean Springs and Gautier. The road was built in two phases, completed in 1960, with overlays applied in 1973 and 1989 only. In an official MDOT long-range research planning document, it says that pavement preservation is the state's number one priority among 29 research subjects.
Minnesota: Awarded the Perpetual Pavement Award for a 1970-constructed, six-mile stretch of Highway 71, which received an asphalt overlay in 2005. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is designating more of the department's FY 2011 budget to pavement preservation than ever before due to "extraordinary inflation in paving materials and rising project costs." Criteria for long-lived, cost effective fixes are a life expectancy of 15 years or more.
Tennessee: Honored for five miles of westbound State Route 1-US 11 in Grainger County, the state is known for well-maintained scenic highways, with 14,000 miles under the aegis of TDOT. Statewide they use micro surfacing methods among other technologies, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officers recognized Tennessee in 2009 as number one in the country with the smoothest overall system.
Necessity is the mother of invention 
Given the sheer economic and cultural pressures on having a workable road and highway system, engineers and scientists have applied themselves to finding better solutions to road deterioration.
An important program authorized by the U.S. Congress two decades ago began looking for innovations in road design and preservation. Called the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), it is the engine for the development of scores of products and methods, many of which are already in use.
One category of products from SHRP is Superpave®, which combines innovations in asphalt binders and a design/analysis system tied to the volumetric properties of the asphalt mix, all subject to models for mix-analysis tests and performance prediction.
While pavement preservation is often defined as paving resurfacing, pothole repairs traditionally fall into another category. Usually done with hot mix asphalt, this expensive and ineffective method is widely regarded as a bandage approach. However, innovations in recent years, included permanent cold-mix asphalt products, can serve as a permanent repair. Operationally simple, it can be applied as an overlayment, to utility cuts, joint repairs, outer edge repairs, surface patches and in "throw and go" pothole repairs. Because it is a cold mix, work crews have greater time-use latitude – days and weeks instead of hours for hot mix – which ultimately reduces associated labor costs. This cold mix is much more resilient, lasting for years (the experience with traditional hot mix asphalt pothole fillers is they are seasonal bandages, sometimes deteriorating in just a few weeks).
What a handful of states and many road technology researchers show is that there's more than one way to build and maintain a road – better, cheaper and longer lasting. Innovation – supported by experimentation – is the best bet for smoother, lower-cost highways and byways.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Focus On Preservation

The problem is all the old streets and highways. But thanks to the SHRP program, better fixes are here.
Man first went to the moon 40 years ago, and today Space Shuttle flights are commonplace. Scientists are beginning to grow spare body parts from stem cells, and the computing power packed into our cell phones continues to evolve at a dizzying pace.
So why are there so many problems with roads and highways? Potholes stretch from Honolulu to Chicago to Nashville and Miami, and the problem only seems to get worse. Can’t we figure out how to make better pavement?
Actually, the roads being built today are better than ever. Human nature recalls the bad potholes, ruts, seams and construction tie-ups that punctuate our travels, but when traveling on good, nicely-paved highways and byways – which are either new or older and well-constructed and maintained – we might just remember the scenery or something else.
Going back a bit further, before the federal highway system was authorized and funded by Congress in 1956, roads were far more dangerous. The national fatality rate was 6.05 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. Today on the nation’s interstates it is 0.8 deaths. Factoring in secondary roads, that number goes up to 1.46 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, but this is still a vast improvement. This has come about through not only safer cars, but also technological advances in road design and maintenance that include wider shoulders, better guardrails, “breakaway” signposts and utility poles, improved signs and pavement markings, pavement that is slid-resistant, and clearer sight lines for drivers.
The problem is that every inch of America’s four million miles or highways, roads and streets, and 660,000 bridges, are aging. Most were built in a frenzy of construction after the passage of the Interstate Highway Act during the 1950s, in the post-World War II era when mobilization of the masses was happening on a huge scale. Over the years, more than $129 billion have spent on construction alone, an investment never questioned because of its vital importance to the economy, national defense and the American way of life.
That was a full fifty years ago for the first generation of roads, which presents a very specific problem: Roads are built to last about 50 years. Even under the best conditions, these roads are getting older, even while the population is concurrently growing and increasingly mobile. Old roads plus more traffic equals road deterioration at an accelerating rate.
Clearly, road engineers and the research and development people who came up with safer road features have a Herculean task in front of them where it comes to pavement longevity. How do they make pavement more resilient? How can our roads be made to last longer and be less costly?
Congress got involved – and it worked! 
Because of the investment that federal, state and local governments have made in roads – and the absolute dependence of commerce, safety and national security in a functioning highway system – a great deal of resources and study have gone into road building and maintenance.
In other words, the government agencies that build and maintain the roads are just as frustrated as everyone else with pavement deterioration.
<blockquote>In 1987, Congress funded a five-year, $150 million research program that focused on improvement of the nation’s highways in terms of performance, durability, safety and efficiency.</blockquote>
In 1987, Congress funded a five-year, $150 million research program that focused on improvement of the nation’s highways in terms of performance, durability, safety and efficiency. Officially known as the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Act, it established the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP, called “sharp”). The program dissects the roads we travel on and what improves the quality of our ride in four essential areas:
Concrete and structures: How best to mix, build, assess, protect and rehabilitate existing concrete roads and bridges.
Asphalt: Identify new approaches to asphalt. Roads made of asphalt are traditionally built with a hot asphalt mix, yet good performance over time was sporadic while maintenance is costly, unwieldy and disruptive.
Highway operations: Improve snow and ice control, find better ways to do preservation work and increase work zone safety.
Pavement performance/The Long Term Pavement Performance Program (LTPP): This ultimately became a 20-year study of 2000 test sections of American and Canadian roads, which identified best practices in building and maintaining pavement.
From the SHRP program, more than 100 new products were identified as furthering pavement performance. A full third of the budget ($53 million) was spent on asphalt research – and for good reason. Asphalt is the predominant building material in roads. It is easier to put down than concrete, and the raw materials – largely aggregates of stone, sand and gravel, and petroleum byproducts – are readily available. About 4000 asphalt mixing plants across the country use the traditional hot mix method, the nature of which forces construction and repair work to be completed within a window of hours, before the mix cools.
What came of the asphalt research in the SHRP program was something called Superpave (Superior Performing Asphalt Pavements). Overall, Superpave is an asphalt mix-design process that accounts for the differences in local conditions found in, for example, Minneapolis versus Miami. It prescribes an ideal asphalt binder, also known as the PG asphalt binder specification, which more accurately addresses conditions where a road is built. This includes factors of climate and use, the latter of which includes how physical properties of the road (such as viscosity) age, how the road deforms (or doesn’t) to form ruts or cracks, and the road’s relatively volatility (flammability).
One researcher who worked on the Superpave program, Mike Anderson, associate director of research at the Asphalt Institute (Lexington, KY), says, “Within volumetric mix design, materials selection and development of aggregate structure are vital. Once these are set, the determination of binder content and moisture-sensitivity just flow from the other conditions.” Key characteristics of Superpave mixes are:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Clean and angular aggregate</li>
<li>Controls on the amount of rounded, natural sand in a mix that could lead to instability; the Superpave mix is coarser than conventional mix.</li>
<li>Binder selection according to local weather data, physical property tests and other guidelines.</li>
<li>Mix according to a road’s known or anticipated traffic levels, defined in the SHRP program according to three degrees of road use (light, medium and heavy).</li>
</ul>
Cold mix asphalt has been a Holy Grail of pavement research, in part because its application can reduce many of logistical issues in new construction and, especially, pavement preservation and reactive pothole repair. Traditional hot-mix asphalt can cool in a matter of hours, from plant to roadwork, thus requiring work crews to schedule around the temperature of the mix, not the work itself. Performance of hot mix asphalt in, say, a spot pothole repair is notoriously dismal as well, yielding poor road conditions even after motorists endure traffic delays when road repair crews block lanes.
Improvements like this are never as exciting as a Shuttle launch. Heck – the opening of a new highway is guaranteed to get more press than a road repair that simply doesn’t disintegrate over a few decades.
But when the ride is smoother, when there are fewer repair crew traffic delays, and when long-term maintenance costs come in under budget, the news can’t get better for motorists and taxpayers.

Why Can't They Make Better Roads?

Introduction:
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.  It’s a popular cliche that, in the current economic climate especially, holds significant bearing on how people spend their money.  In an attempt to stretch dollars already spent, there is a tendency to postpone maintenance until the last possible moment.  For example, a car driving down the road with squeaking brakes.  So long as they aren’t grinding, the driver is content wearing the pads right down to the rotors.  Or the person with a toothache that puts off seeing a dentist until it is unbearable.  Even though the tooth is uncomfortable, so long as it’s tolerable, it can wait.  While the subjects in these hypothetical situations can keep a few extra bucks in their pockets for the time being, the implications of putting off such issues can be much more expensive than adhering to a proactive, routine maintenance approach.  Eventually, the driver with worn brake pads will begin to wear into his rotors, requiring immediate repairs costing twice as much as brake pads alone.  The person suffering from a toothache will eventually find out what was initially a simple filling procedure now requires a more expensive root canal.  In retrospect, an investment at the first sign of deterioration would have been much cheaper, not to mention less painful. 
The same principle applies to road maintenance.  As much as commuters are annoyed by poor roads, most loathe infinitely more the construction induced traffic jam.  What most commuters don’t take into consideration is the sheer size of the road systems they use every day.  The United States has 3.95 million miles of public roads, with an estimated worth of a massive $1.75 trillion.  Traditionally, a "worst-first" approach has been applied to pavement maintenance.  Referred to as reactive maintenance, this philosophy prescribes to fixing roads once significant structural damage has already been incurred.  The end result necessitates more severe rehabilitation projects that are expensive, cause significant traffic delays, and unsafe road conditions prior to completing such repairs. 
There is, however, a proactive solution to maintaining roads: Pavement preservation.  The National Center for Pavement Prevention defines pavement preservation as "a cost-effective set of practices that extend pavement life and improve safety and motorist satisfaction while saving public tax dollars."  Essentially, a pavement preservation program seeks to create a system of implementing relatively small scale repairs on roads prior to structural degradation to avoid the necessity of full blown road reconstruction.  Successful pavement preservation will result in long term savings, reduced traffic congestion, and safer roads.  This essay will discuss the fundamentals of pavement preservation, the techniques used for pavement preservation, and discussion of current pavement preservation practices; finally, an objective analysis of the benefits and criticisms will lead to a conclusion.
Pavement Preservation Fundamentals: 
While the techniques of pavement preservation are pivotal, as will be discussed in the following section, for any pavement preservation program to succeed there are several philosophical and strategic elements that must be determined prior to taking any maintenance measures.  First, and foremost, is embracing the philosophy of pavement preservation; the traditional mentality of "worst-first" repairs needs to be replaced with one of prolonging the investments already made to road systems.  Pavement preservation needs to be seen as a long term process.  A short term analysis may suggest that preservation based maintenance is an unnecessary expenditure, but in the long run up to six dollars can be saved for every one dollar put into pavement preservation, a significant amount considering the cost of maintaining road ways. 
Once the philosophy of pavement preservation is embodied, strategies must be developed to execute a successful preservation program, certain questions must be answered: How can dedicated funding be secured?  How can quantifiable data be collected to both account for present road conditions and to monitor the program’s success?  How and when should actions be taken to efficiently prolong the life of the current road systems?  Unfortunately, there are no universal responses to any of these questions, they are unique to every individual road management agency; there are, however, some basic points to consider when making these decisions.
<blockquote>Without dedicated funding, pavement preservation projects frequently get pushed to the last tier of priority, and a variety of factors from backed up "worst-first" repairs to severe weather can be enough to sabotage an entire pavement preservation program.</blockquote>
First, there is a difference between funding and dedicated funding.  Without dedicated funding, pavement preservation projects frequently get pushed to the last tier of priority, and a variety of factors from backed up "worst-first" repairs to severe weather can be enough to sabotage an entire pavement preservation program.  A common phrase when discussing pavement preservation is "applying the right treatment to the right pavement at the right time," and if preservation projects are delayed, roads can incur structural damage in that time, making any attempt to preserve the road obsolete.  This being said, finding ways to eliminate competition for funds is essential to ensuring proactive measures. 
Data collection and management is also crucial to a successful pavement preservation program.  Data provides a quantifiable means of assessing road ways and the preservation program as a whole.  Again, the means of collecting such data is in the hands of the agencies managing the roads, but the end objective is simple: Provide precise and unbiased information that can be used to determine when preservation measures should be taken and how effective previous maintenance actions were.  There are various indexes that can be used to quantify road conditions, including the Pavement Condition Index (PCI, measured visually on a scale from 0 to 100), the Present Serviceability Rating (PSR, measured by quality of ride on a scale from 0 to 5), and the International Roughness Index (IRI, measured by the vertical deviation of a vehicles suspension in units of millimeters per meter).  Regardless of what method is used to quantify data, it is important to be consistent and use it effectively. 
Finally, there is determining where and when to implement pavement preservation techniques.  Successful pavement preservation programs need to be efficient and effective.  Again, the saying about the right treatment, the right pavement, the right time has significant value.  Maintenance to prolong road life must be executed with precise timing.  As mentioned before, putting off maintenance to preserve road ways can lead to a "too little, too late" situation; once the structural integrity of a road is compromised, reactive maintenance is necessary.  Similarly, executing preservation techniques too early will result in a waste of time, money, and resources, all of which could have been used for a more appropriate preservation project.  Taking these two points in to consideration, there is a specific window of time when preservation techniques are effective and efficient.  By identifying when such a time span will exist on specific road segments, road management agencies can coordinate and facilitate several preservation projects, optimizing their production factors, and, sequentially, optimizing their pavement preservation program.
Pavement Preservation Techniques 
The maintenance techniques used for pavement preservation are unique from reactive maintenance in that they are significantly smaller scale projects, focusing primarily on a road’s surface rather than structure.  These techniques prolong the life of road ways by addressing surface imperfections before they are allowed to deteriorate the subsurface structure of the road.  Even though there is no way to make pavement last forever, addressing minor issues significantly reduces the wear on the road’s structure.  The maintenance procedures used for pavement preservation are formally categorized into three categories: Routine maintenance, preventive maintenance, and minor rehabilitation.  Though the actual techniques that fall into each specific category are different, their objectives are the same; they attempt to make existing road systems last as long as possible. 
As defined by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), routine maintenance "consists of work that is planned and performed on a routine basis to maintain and preserve the condition of the highway system or to respond to specific conditions and events that restore the highway system to an adequate level of service."  As the name implies, routine maintenance are tasks that are planned and performed on a regular basis.  These various maintenance techniques include surface cleaning and clearing of debris, maintaining lane lines and other various pavement markings, and minor surface repairs such as filling cracks, patching potholes, or small scale overlays.  While not all routine maintenance techniques are strictly considered to be a part of pavement preservation, they will fall into this category when used to specifically to prolong the life of a road. 
Preventive maintenance is the most intuitive component of pavement preservation.  It is defined, again by the AASHTO, as "a planned strategy of cost-effective treatments to an existing roadway system and its appurtenances that preserve the system, retards future deterioration, and maintains or improves the functional condition of the system."  These techniques are the primary tools used for pavement preservation.  They include tasks that are specifically implemented with the intentions of protecting the investment made in already constructed roads by addressing surface flaws that threaten to jeopardize the structural integrity of the subsurface, essentially preventing reactive maintenance.  Preventive maintenance includes multitude of procedures, including sealing cracks, chips, or joints, slurry seals, and thin asphalt overlays.  In short, preventative maintenance aims to address problems as they form so that minimal input of time, money, and resources can be used to prevent a larger problem in the future. 
Minor rehabilitation is a subset of a more general category of maintenance called pavement rehabilitation.  Pavement rehabilitation is defined by the AASHTO as "structural enhancements that extend the service life of an existing pavement and/or improve its load carrying capacity."   The distinction between minor and major rehabilitation is fairly straightforward; minor rehabilitation does not involve structural enhancements, as opposed to major rehabilitation.  Minor rehabilitation is often more drastic from preventive maintenance, frequently addressing a more deteriorated surface, however, since it does not involve repairs to the structure and instead aims to prevent structural damage, it is classified as an element of pavement preservation.  Restoration treatments and larger scale overlays fall into the classification of minor rehabilitation.
Current Pavement Preservation Practices 
As long ago as 1997, the AASHTO released a survey revealing that most state highway agencies embraced the notion of pavement preservation.  As nearly half of the interstate system at the time was considered to be in sub par condition, it is no surprise that the principles of pavement preservation began to be taken more seriously as a practical solution to the always deteriorating highway system.  Several states went on to implement such a plan, with some of the most successful being California, Georgia, Michigan, and Texas.  While the benefits were not noticeable immediately in the short term, in time the results of utilizing a pavement preservation program proved quite favorable. 
These states realized a variety of benefits, as reported in a 2000 publication by the Federal Highway Administration.  Texas found it to be comparatively inexpensive and gradually improving the overall status of their road systems.  Georgia also noted an improvement throughout their collective highway systems and also found that the transition from reactive maintenance to preservation projects was fairly seamless, hassle free, and had little effect on their ability to tend to larger scale repairs.  California estimated that they were getting about five to seven additional years of usage out of their already existing highways.  Michigan concluded that preventive maintenance was nearly 14 times cheaper than reactive maintenance per lane-mile; they figured, in eight years of practicing pavement preservation, they had saved in excess of $700 million in comparison to using reactive maintenance. 
As pavement preservation programs are adopted by new agencies and refined by those already using such programs, there is increasing demand for better materials with more efficiency, versatility, and eco-friendly.  As both road management agencies and material manufacturers continue to improve, so too will the benefits of pavement preservation.
Criticisms and Conclusion 
As established by the reports of agencies using pavement preservation programs, the advantages of a proactive, preventative approach to road maintenance has proven to be as successful in practice as it is in theory.  It costs less, produces less traffic congestion, and makes roads safer longer.  It is a curious concept that such a philosophy is not universally embraced.  While the premise of pavement preservation maybe strike some as straightforward and logical, there are certain criticisms that stand in the way of a universal acceptance of the concept.  The public may have difficulty understanding why they are waiting in traffic while a construction crew repairs a relatively small imperfection.  The layman will not understand the consequences of allowing what he deems a superficial crack in the road go unattended to.  Also, like any change in an organization, accepting change is difficult.  Convincing every component of an agency, from the stakeholders to the work crews, that they need to change their ways poses the epic task of shifting paradigms.  Finally, the nature of the research data used to assess the performance of a pavement preservation program is not concrete.  For example, asserting the financial benefits of a preservation approach over a reactive approach requires that a hypothetical projection be made for how maintaining a reactive approach "could" have been.  Certainly historical figures or comparisons to similar systems could be referenced, but ultimately, because of the unique circumstances of every agency, there can be no true comparison without speculation. 
Still, the enticing elements of a pavement preservation program exist.  Despite criticisms, several road management agencies have implemented a preventative approach with great success.  Research surveys show an increase in the general public to support a more financially sound model, as opposed to the "worst-first" model.  As the concept of pavement preservation is better understood, the more and more support it receives.  While states like Texas, Georgia, California, and Michigan reap the benefits, others continue to implement dated models of reactive maintenance.  Taking all of this into account, there is one question that needs to be answered: Aren’t the long term benefits of pavement preservation worth the investment in being proactive? 
References 
The National Center For Pavement Preservation 
<a href="http://www.pavementpreservation.org/">http://www.pavementpreservation.org/</a>
Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center 
Article: Pavement Preservation: Preserving Our Investment in Highways 
<a href="http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/jan00/pavement.htm">http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/jan00/pavement.htm</a>
Washington State Department of Transportation 
Article: Pavement Evaluation – Roughness 
<a href="http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/Modules/09_pavement_evaluation/09-2_body.htm">http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/Modules/09_pavement_evaluation/09-2_body.htm</a>
US Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration 
Memo: Pavement Preservation Definitions 
<a href="http://www.pavementpreservation.org/library/getfile.php?journal_id=482">http://www.pavementpreservation.org/library/getfile.php?journal_id=482</a>
Foundation for Pavement Preservation 
Article: Pavement Preventive Maintenance Guidelines 
<a href="http://www.fp2.org/pdffiles/PavPrevMainGuides.pdf">http://www.fp2.org/pdffiles/PavPrevMainGuides.pdf</a>

Pavement Preservation: A Proactive Approach to Road Repairs

There are nearly 3.95 million miles of public roads in the United States , valued at more than $1.75 trillion. The NCPP will provide a valuable resource to help educate others about the benefits of pavement preservation. It can enhance pavement preservation knowledge through research and assist owner agencies to establish effective programs. These programs extend pavement life and improve motorist safety and satisfaction while saving public tax dollars.
<a href="http://www.pavementpreservation.org/about/" target="_blank">Click here to learn more</a>

NCPP – National Center for Pavement Preservation

Spend 20 minutes watching TV news and you’d think the biggest transportation problem today is the auto industry. Bailouts, bankruptcies and acquisitions by foreign companies command the lion’s share of media attention – enough so that we forget about another very expensive transportation problem affecting virtually every driver in the country.
That problem is potholes. We see them in the dead of winter in northern towns, but also in semi-tropical cities like Miami and Honolulu. We drive like NASCAR professionals to avoid hitting them and mostly succeed – until we don’t, and end up with flat tires or worse. Come spring and summer we curse them if they are still there, unfilled, almost as much as we yell during traffic tie-ups due to road repair work.
Conspiracy theories are abundant in the blogosphere, suggesting a linkage between municipalities and the auto repair industry (however, none of that is supported by the evidence). But along with those other certainties of life, death and taxes, it seems that potholes are a universal experience. Frustration and dollars add up.
But all is not lost – improvements are on the way. Tire and auto dealers provide online advice to drivers on how to manage their way through pothole season. Municipalities test alternatives to road salt, which can corrode reinforcement bars in roads and bridges. And engineers are devising new methods for pothole and road repair, making pothole fillers last longer and street construction sturdier.
A grim accounting
And in case you know anyone at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) or TRIP, a national transportation research group, don’t invite him or her to your next backyard barbecue. The conversation could not be cheerful. In their seminal report, Rough Roads Ahead, Fix Them Now or Pay for It Later, it appears as if we’re due for a few tire blowouts and much worse in taxes in the future. Here are some of their findings:
<ul type="disc">
<li>As much as 20 percent of the Interstate Highway System is rated mediocre or poor.</li>
<li>Forty percent of rural roads are in less-than good condition.</li>
<li>Sixty percent of urban roads are in poor condition.</li>
<li>Drivers themselves spend an average $335 per year in vehicle operating costs, with those costs a much higher $746 per year in certain urban areas where repairs are more frequent and more expensive.</li>
</ul>
The report notes that $27 billion dollars are designated by Congress in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (the “stimulus bill”) to go to highway projects. But AASHTO’s research also shows that an investment of $166 billion needs to be spent each year in highways and bridges. That’s a trillion dollars on road infrastructure alone in the next six years.
Rough Roads Ahead also provides a few cautionary tales. One is that a road allowed to deteriorate over 25 years will cost three times more to repair than a road that was maintained over the same number of years. Traffic growth of 41 percent from 1990 through 2007 exceeds population growth, which shows no sign of abating any time soon. While the bulk of this traffic is in urban areas, freight truck traffic on the 50-year old Interstate highway system carries 80 percent of the freight tonnage moving across the country – that’s 10,500 trucks per day crossing every mile of the system. Recession-strapped state coffers fall short of simply maintaining the poor levels of roads they have currently – stimulus funds will only bring them back to parity, at best, with better economic times.
This should hardly be a point of controversy. Potholes cost everyone money. Preventing potholes saves money. An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. So why aren’t potholes being fixed in a timelier fashion?
With all due credit, most municipalities are doing the best they can. They get the phone calls, see the television news “pothole cam” reporting, and hear about it from taxpayer organizations. They truly want solutions, and strive to find new ways of doing things, but resources are limited, more so under adverse weather conditions. We could hardly blame them if they also pray for a mild winter.
Throw-and-go pothole fillers that last?
Traditionally, the pockmarked streets find their easiest and cheapest fix with application of hot-mix asphalt, administered from slow-moving trucks by municipal employees who are greeted as heroes in most neighborhoods. But everyone knows how these fixes deteriorate over time – pothole filler can work loose or settles deeper than intact pavement in just a few weeks. An ordinary avenue in places like Cleveland, Wichita, Miami or Los Angeles can be worthy of an SUV television ad – lots of jarring bumps, as challenging as an off-road trail in the Sierra Nevadas.
Newer approaches to pothole repair show promise of creating something better. Some technologies work longer – they hold the hole, so to speak, for longer lengths of time – and some even offer “green” advantages over traditional hot-mix approaches.
<blockquote>I did the math. If it cost $10 to patch a pothole one time, and I had to patch 12 times a year, then $20 or $30 to patch it once a year would save me both labor time and material costs. Using this product we are able to do a better utility cut and do it faster.</blockquote>
Several state departments of transportation have begun using permanent cold asphalt mix, which employ polymer-modified technology to guarantee a more permanent pothole repair. The mix provides several benefits in both application and long term wear:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Instant “throw and go” readiness for traffic – road crews tamp it down and cars can traverse it seconds later.</li>
<li>Can be applied in all weather conditions – no waiting for warmer or cooler temperatures.</li>
<li>Can be applied in water, including those “hidden” potholes that look like mere puddles to unsuspecting drivers.</li>
<li>No special mixing required, nor do the potholes need extensive preparation other than clearing loose debris – this means road repair crews can cover more territory in less time.</li>
</ul>
Use of cold-mix asphalt began long ago and is finding fans. Some DOT chiefs have gone on record about the use and economics of this newer cold-mix technology:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Millersville, Tennessee: “I did the math. If it cost $10 to patch a pothole one time, and I had to patch 12 times a year, then $20 or $30 to patch it once a year would save me both labor time and material costs. Using this product we are able to do a better utility cut and do it faster.”</li>
<li>Hialeah, Florida: [Cold asphalt] is easier to apply with hand tools for small patch jobs, and we do not have to go back and revisit potholes like before. For larger patches it is easily applied with a backhoe loader bucket and it does not stick to our equipment, truck beds or hand tools, making cleanup much easier. The benefits…in our utility patching clearly outweigh the incremental cost for it.”</li>
<li>Somers (Westchester County) New York: “We have used cold asphalt with the hopes of just getting us through the winter until we can replace with hot asphalt after the weather turns warmer. [Now] I know that I will not have to take the time to go back to the spots that we repaired in the winter. This is saving our town time and money.”</li>
</ul>
Summoning their inner Mario Andretti
Individual drivers are conducting their own independent efforts, with the help of the auto industry, to fight back as well. An association of Honda dealerships in the New York City area provides this defensive driving advice to customers on their <a href="http://www.nylihonda.com/servicemyhonda_tire.asp">website</a>:
<ul>
<li>Hitting a pothole can throw your car’s front end out of alignment. If you feel your car “pulling” as you drive, you could have a problem. Check the tread on your tires. If you find uneven treadwear, it could be a sign of misalignment. If you hit a severe pothole, have a tire dealer check your vehicle’s alignment and tire balance.</li>
<li>Damage to your tire and/or the metal wheel of your vehicle can occur when you hit a pothole. Keeping your tires properly inflated helps reduce damage from potholes and other road hazards.</li>
<li>The impact of potholes on tires increases dramatically depending on the speed at which your vehicle travels. This can cause hidden, internal damage that could lead to tire failure weeks, or even months, later. For these reasons, it is best to avoid potholes entirely. If that’s not possible, avoid braking during pothole impact. Instead, apply your brakes before hitting a pothole and release them just prior to impact. (Braking during impact sets up the tire and wheel assembly for a “solid hit” against the edge of the hole. Less severe damage occurs when a tire rolls over a pothole than when it skids during braking.)</li>
</ul>
Taking matters into their own hands, here is a sampling of advice from one <a href="http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1633427">blog</a> site, dedicated to drivers of the VW Golf GTI, on avoiding flat tires from potholes:
Subject line: Pothole resistant tires
I’ve only had my ’09 GTI 4-door for about a month (maybe less) and I’ve already blown out a tire on a pothole (I hit it avoiding another one at night in wet roads). I love my 18″, but New Jersey is riddled with potholes and I’m a little nervous about how many more times I’m going to have to deal with NOT having it covered under roadside assistance and having to change my tire in the mud. Obviously if I were stronger and able to hold the tire in place while I put it back on, it wouldn’t be a big deal. :p but there aren’t even bolts to stick out and mount the tire on. So cheap. My question is, are there any tires out there that are thicker and more durable in the face of potholes for an 18″ wheel?
Responding to that, a thread of several dozen respondents covered the pros and cons of over-inflation of tires, either to create greater flat resilience (at the expense of ride comfort) or to enable sharper, more agile cornering so the driver can avoid potholes altogether. If they were Honda drivers on Long Island, they’d know the answer to this question. Clearly, it’s a hot topic, and the solutions might be as varied as the country’s different drivers and vehicles.
So there you have it. Potholes are a big, fat problem. They’re ubiquitous and inevitable. Minimizing damage and costs associated with those damages will not come with a one-fix silver bullet. It’s a matter of timely funding, spending those funds smartly, innovation – and knowing how to drive.

Hate the pothole. Love the filler.

1. A general overview of pavement preservation and the role of Superpave/newer technologies in accomplishing that in a cost-effective (over time) manner.
=========================================================
Save the Road, Save Some Money
A crisis of road deterioration is challenging federal, state and local budgets. Better road preservation methods are being devised, fortunately, offering improved highway maintenance economics.
It's pretty hard to tally the complete value of working highways and roads in America. The country's approximately four million miles of pavement connect not only cities, towns and villages, but manufacturing plants, warehouses, freight stations and ports. Goods from abroad as well as USA-made products move around the country on rivers of asphalt, keeping our $200 trillion economy chugging along.
The six-day closure of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, in late October 2009, diverted 228,000 cars from their normal daily commute. As an alternative, a portion of the workforce remained functional by telecommuting. Some commuters drove north to the Golden Gate Bridge, while others south to the Haywood-San Mateo span – no doubt confounding motorists who routinely use those spans. BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, reported its biggest day in history with 437,000 thousand taking the train one day of the shut down. Reportedly, no one was happy.
All this because of a broken cable that protected a cracked beam. Elsewhere, there are many, many more things that can get in the way of smooth transportation. Most dramatically, the collapse of Minneapolis' I35W Bridge in 2007, where 13 people lost their lives (and the region reportedly lost $400,000 in commercial traffic every day), was due to a sudden infrastructure breakdown. But drive around almost any city in America, coast to coast, Canada to Mexico with Hawaii and Alaska counted as well, and you're likely to see the bane of all driving: potholes.
Potholes have been around since the Romans were building roads all over their empire. But modern roads are getting worse lately: the U.S. federal highway system was initiated a little more than fifty years ago by the Eisenhower Administration and 46,876 miles of the Interstate Highway System were built over the next several decades, designed to last about fifty years. This is a ticking time bomb.
To put numbers to these worries, highway and transportation watchdog groups weigh in on what they see happening in road deterioration:
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<li>TRIP, a national transportation research organization, claims that 23 percent of major U.S. metropolitan roads have pavements in poor condition. Included in this are interstates, freeways and important local roads.</li>
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<li>The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) says that only half of these roads can be categorized as being in good condition.</li>
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<li>FHWA says that rural roads are in better condition, but still 39 percent fail to meet "good condition" ratings.</li>
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<li>FHWA says that 25 percent of urban roads – those that carry most of the nation's traffic – are in poor condition.</li>
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<li>TRIP also reports that on average, urban motorists suffer $413 in additional vehicle operating costs resulting from increased fuel consumption, additional maintenance and vehicle deterioration due to rough pavement.</li>
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<li>The TRIP report also details city-by-city road deterioration statistics. Los Angeles has the dubious distinction of being the worst, with 64 percent of its major roads in poor condition. Almost as bad, in descending order, are San Francisco-Oakland (61 percent); Honolulu (61 percent); San Jose (60 percent); San Diego (53 percent); New Orleans (50 percent); New York City (49 percent); Sacramento (46 percent); Baltimore (42 percent); Oklahoma City (41 percent); Tulsa (40 percent); Albuquerque (39 percent); Omaha (38 percent); San Antonio (37 percent); Philadelphia (36 percent); Detroit (36 percent); Riverside-San Bernardino (35 percent); Oxnard-Ventura (35 percent); Houston (33 percent); Fresno (30 percent); and Washington, DC (30 percent).</li>
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FHWA attributes deteriorating roads to aging of pavement, unrelenting traffic and trucks carrying heavy loads of freight.
<blockquote>Road conditions actually improved from 2000 to 2006, but began to decline again in 2007. What happened? FHWA says this is due to under-funded maintenance and deferred new construction, all tied to tighter budgets.</blockquote>
Things were getting better, but … 
Road conditions actually improved from 2000 to 2006, but began to decline again in 2007. What happened? FHWA says this is due to under-funded maintenance and deferred new construction, all tied to tighter budgets.
The troubling economics of deferred road repair today is that it increases costs tomorrow. According to an article in Better Roads magazine (March 2009), "A pothole is like a tooth cavity. Left untreated it gets more decayed, more painful, takes more time and money to care for, and sometimes you end up having to urgently call in a specialist."
The pain (cost) happens in both micro and macro terms:
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<li>The individual driver traversing a rough road will suffer vehicle damage, such as blown tires, cracked wheels and axels, and broken shock absorbers and struts, which dangerously alters steering and handling. That can be around $100 per tire and up to $500 per wheel if it is damaged also. TRIP reports that on average, American motorists shell out $335 in additional vehicle operating costs due to rough pavement, with drivers in several cities (Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco-Oakland and Tulsa) absorbing more than $700 per car in such repairs each year.</li>
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<li>Municipalities, states and the federal government pay more for replacing roads than if they instead maintain existing roads over time. The U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration, in its 2005 report At the Crossroads: Preserving Our Highway Investment, state clearly that "Higher quality investments earlier in the life of the road will save money over the long run because maintaining a road in good condition is less expensive than repairing or rebuilding one in poor condition."</li>
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Yet the money runs short. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), in a joint report compiled with TRIP titled Rough Roads Ahead, Fix Them Now or Pay For Them Later, projects the national annual outlay for all capital investments in infrastructure, highways and bridges, should be $166 billion, each year through 2015. This far outstrips current spending, which in 2006 was only $78 billion.
In a recession, tax revenues naturally drop. Traffic does too, which reduces some road damage from cars and trucks. But rain, snow and freeze-thaw cycles continue unabated. Potholes are as certain as death and taxes.
Superpave technology to the rescue 
Yankee ingenuity abhors a vacuum (and if you've driven around Boston lately, it is easy to see why). There are better roads ahead if we can just migrate to new methods and materials.
We're already on our way there. A project authorized by Congress in the late 1980s, the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), has successfully developed and evaluated technologies and techniques to combat the problems with our roads. Costs for the program were shared with state transportation departments, while the actual research was conducted under contract with universities and private companies.
SHRP studied asphalt, concrete, highway operations maintenance and safety and long-term pavement performance. More than 100 products were developed in the six years of the program, which have been showcased and shared with the highway building and maintenance community (including through the FHWA-sponsored National Asphalt Training Center, based in Lexington, Kentucky).
The highest-performing products to come out of this research are collectively known as the Superpave® program. This broadly is made up of three components: asphalt binder specifications, a design and analysis system that is based on volumetric properties of the asphalt mix, and models for mix-analysis tests and performance prediction. Of course part of the research outcomes were products that fit different climate and traffic conditions.
For example, in asphalt binders, the traditional material is a hot mix of petroleum joined with a specified grade of aggregate. Produced hot from the plant, it is put in trucks for use by road crews to either repave a road or fill in potholes. Because it has to be applied while still warm, all kinds of inefficiencies are intrinsic to its use.
Cold mix technologies, however, eliminate the logistics problems associated with hot mix applications. This frees up more road crews to actually fix potholes, for example, rather than wait in line at a processing plant for that day's mix. When a truckload is half empty at the end of a day, it can simply be rolled to the next day. The material is adaptive to a broad range of temperatures.
Of greater importance is how Superpave products perform. One brand in wide distribution is <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.com/">EZ Street Cold Asphalt</a>, which uses a low molecular weight liquid polymer modifier, also known as a reactive aggregate insertion polymer. It's particularly good at resisting water, the enemy of all asphalt paving. Its adhesion and cohesion properties also contribute to its performance over time. Application of the mix requires no special equipment or methodologies, just a dump truck, plate compactor, asphalt rake and shovels. When necessary, it can be a throw-and-go process, pressed into water-filled potholes and driven on moments after installation.
The director of public works in Millersville, Tennessee remarked in Tennessee Public Works (January/February 2002) that <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.com/">EZ Street</a> enabled his crews to work with greater efficiency in patching potholes than with hot mix, and that it held up to traffic ten to 12 longer than traditional hot mix. The mix also cut down his labor needs considerably.
The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has conducted macroeconomic analysis of the benefits of SHRP products and Superpave technologies. Very conservative estimates on service life extensions of roadways project a $1.3 billion to $2.1 billion in savings per year to motorists in reduced auto maintenance, wear and tear, plus a reduction in highway agency costs that range from $484 million to $785 million annually.
Superpave methods and materials generally cost more upfront, which makes them difficult to rationalize in a tight economy. But American commerce and culture show no sign of reducing their dependence on roads, telling us these new and improved methods can't come into use soon enough.

Repair & Materials