Why Use Highway Concrete?
Concrete is a solid and stable material that makes an ideal surface for highways where vehicles travel at high speeds. Find the best Asphalt Paving in Santa Clarita.
Highway contractors utilize numerous advanced technologies when building or refurbishing existing highways in order to save both money and improve performance. Subgrade preparation is usually the initial step when creating a highway.
Long-Lasting
Concrete is an incredible material to use when building highways and holds up well against heavy vehicular loads. Furthermore, its strength lies in a carefully balanced mix of ingredients; specifically, combining large aggregates, medium aggregates, and fine aggregates will form a tight bond for an excellent road surface that resists extreme temperature changes that crack asphalt roads. Michigan and Minnesota both experience rapid temperature shifts that require temperature-regulated mixes of concrete to bind tightly enough that roads don’t crack over time.
Concrete has the added advantage of resisting wear and tear better than flexible pavement surfaces, making it more reliable and less susceptible to issues such as cracking, stripping, rutting, or loss of texture. Concrete has proven its worth as a durable material that has stood up over decades or even centuries without major signs of degradation.
Longevity also contributes to maintenance expense savings. Concrete roads are less susceptible to rutting, which causes traffic jams. They don’t need as frequent repairs or resurfacing as asphalt roads do, saving on materials and labor costs as well. This factor is especially relevant on highways where traffic volumes may be extremely high; keeping these spaces adequately maintained will ensure more dependability and safer driving experiences for drivers.
Low-Maintenance
As the population expands, traffic accidents claim many lives annually. Highway engineers and safety authorities strive to minimize this tragedy; one way they do so is by replacing older pavements with concrete that requires less upkeep.
Engineers are creating a new type of concrete that is more flexible than standard cement. Bendable concrete contains gravel, sand, and polymer microfibres, which interact microscopically to form tough as metal concrete with twice as strong bendability when bent. Furthermore, this surface offers non-slip properties for improved skid resistance.
Researchers are exploring other additives to make concrete more resilient, including ground slag from the steel industry, which replaces some of the cement to increase density and packing density. A critical test for new concrete mixes is their freeze-thaw cycle durability; standard concrete degrades after 28 such cycles, while the research team’s mix has so far withstood 90 without suffering degradation.
New concrete may be more costly to produce, but its long-term costs will be less than those associated with maintaining existing highways. Unfortunately, a large part of the highway construction industry consists of small businesses that may resist using long-lasting and low-maintenance pavements due to higher initial costs; financing mechanisms often focus on finding contractors with the lowest first price bid evaluations – another factor that discourages contractors from investing in longer-lasting materials.
Safety
Concrete played an instrumental role in building America’s highway system during the 1960s and 70s. Even as that era of road building came to a close, research continued, and technologies evolved, allowing maintenance workers to repair existing highways without interrupting traffic flow.
Highway contractors can reduce accidents by taking some simple precautions when performing concrete patching projects. To limit accidents, they should always use a concrete mixer truck instead of hand mixing cement in buckets; this will prevent air bubbles from forming, which weaken the strength and durability of concrete structures.
Contractors using concrete should wear protective clothing such as gloves and eye protection to guard against the effects of concrete dust on skin, eyes, and nose irritation. Workers should also use waterproof pads for knees, elbows, hands, etc., during finishing operations.
Contractors should take measures to protect both themselves and the work area during work activities. Furthermore, potentially risky tasks should be scheduled early in the day or during periods with predicted low traffic volumes for maximum protection.
Signs, barrels, and other traffic control devices should mark work zones and inform motorists about upcoming changes to the roadway. These tips may help reduce accidents caused by inattentive drivers or those unfamiliar with highway work zone procedures.
Environmentally Friendly
Concrete is constructed of natural materials and does not need toxic preservatives for preservation. It also does not release Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons or Volatile Organic Compounds into the atmosphere, which could potentially damage soil health and harm microbial communities. Conversely, asphalt roads produced using oil produce pollution during both their manufacture and wear and tear. Furthermore, asphalt roads tend to produce much louder roads that can distract drivers while impacting nearby wildlife populations.
Road construction consumes an enormous amount of energy, the majority of which comes from burning fossil fuels. However, there are ways to lower the environmental impact of highway projects. One such method is using warm-mix asphalt, which requires lower temperatures for production and thus uses less energy overall. Using recycled materials in construction has also been found to significantly decrease carbon footprints.
Eco Material Technologies has taken steps to make concrete an eco-friendly material by combining ancient Roman techniques with modern material science and creating an eco-friendly concrete that eliminates nearly 8% of global carbon emissions associated with cement production. Furthermore, their concrete is less likely to succumb to corrosion – making it useful in areas with high salt concentrations or other chemicals that cause erosion or pavement damage.
