Where do potholes come from?
“There are a couple of reasons why potholes can start,” says Ťok, vice-chairman of FUTTEC in Czechia. “First, if you have a fresh new road and there are unwanted materials inside from poor preparation, this can cause defects that lead to potholes,” he explains, though this is rare. The second cause is far more common: as the road gets older, small cracks start to appear as the material expands in warm weather and shrinks again in the cold. If these cracks connect, small potholes can form. Roads that experience greater swings in temperature – and particularly cold winters – can see more wear and tear. Colder areas of northern and eastern Europe are therefore far more prone to potholes. And if these small potholes go ignored, they can grow. Water infiltrates the small cracks, and widens them further when it freezes. “Of course, when there are cars going over these potholes, they are also mechanically destroying the walls of the pothole, making it bigger and bigger,” Ťok adds. In the EU-funded RADARR 2 project, Ťok and his team developed an innovative new microwave technology to seamlessly heal potholes in roads. The technology heats bituminous material around a defect, before adding fresh material at the same temperature, creating an unbroken surface. “Before our technology, there was not any suitable technology to really deal with these small potholes,” says Ťok. It’s not just roads in Czechia that could benefit from the new technology: the team are already rolling out their innovation to other European cities such as Vienna. But would it be possible to make a road that never develops potholes? That’s unlikely, remarks Ťok. Road-building materials will have to always strike the right balance between quality and price, and asphalt or concrete look like the best bets for the near future. “As far as I see, in my life, there will not be a big change.” For now, there will always be a few bumps in the road. Click here to find out more about Dan Ťok’s research: Solving Europe’s pothole problem
Keywords
RADARR 2, potholes, road, microwave, technology, asphalt, winter