Dutch Construction/Engineering Company Proposes Plastic Roads

This isn’t directly about LENR, but I think it’s an interesting energy-related story. VolkerWessels, a major European construction and engineering company based in the Netherlands has published an article on their website that they are working on the concept of building roads made from plastic as an alternative to asphalt. While still very much in the planning stages, VolkerWessels sees plastic roads as having some major advantages over current roads.

http://en.volkerwessels.com/en/projects/detail/plasticroad

They summarize:

A lightweight design, a fraction of the construction time, virtually maintenance free, and three times the expected lifespan. PlasticRoad, which consists of 100% recycled material, is the ideal sustainable alternative to conventional road structures.

plasticroad
Image source: volkerwessels.com

There are some interesting selling points here. There’s the environmental argument for reusing the masses of discarded plastics on land and sea. Modular construction of road surface, where premade sections are shipped in and assembled could eliminate much of the traffic congestion associated with current road construction. The company says that the road would be largely unaffected by weather — able to withstand temperatures between -40 to 80 degrees Celsius, and would have the advantage of a hollow space below the surface where utility cables and drainage water could go.

Someone mentioned on this site recently that E-Cat heat could be used below the surface of roads to keep them from freezing. I think it would be a lot easier to do that with a road like this than with current roads.

I suppose there is plenty of data available on the strength and durability of plastics which VolkerWessls will have studied before putting this idea out there. The company says that all this is all so far “on paper”, but apparently the city of Rotterdam is interested in putting in a test road. And lots of testing will be needed to see if the idea would hold up in the real world. You’d need to see what would happen in all kinds of conditions (e.g. rain, snow, ice, oil spills, etc.), and under constant load from heavy vehicles.