The hole story

Instant duck pond

POTHOLES are a scourge of rich and poor countries alike. The American Automobile Association recently calculated that 16m drivers in the United States suffered pothole damage to their vehicles in the past five years. That damage ranged from punctures, via bent wheels, to broken suspensions. The bill to fix it was about $3 billion a year. In India, meanwhile, the cost of potholes is often paid in a harsher currency than dollars. There, more than 3,000 people a year are killed in accidents involving them. Yet cash-strapped governments often ignore the problem, letting roads deteriorate. In Britain, for example, some £12 billion ($17 billion) would be needed to make all roads pothole-free. Ways of repairing potholes more cheaply and enduringly would thus be welcome. And several groups of researchers are working on it.

The most common cause of potholes is water penetrating cracks in a road’s surface and weakening its foundation. This is a particular problem with asphalt surfaces. These are made from an aggregate of materials bound together by sticky bitumen. The constant pounding of traffic disintegrates the…Continue reading
Source: Economist