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.