A civil engineering professor and his team at the University of Texas at Arlington have been working on a project that uses waste products to fix roads.
Dr. Sahadat Hossain, director of the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Solid Waste Institute for Sustainability, has been working on the project alongside a group of Ph.D. students and one postdoctoral research associate for the last three years.
Hossain and his team have said they “don’t want plastic to go into the landfill” and are using plastic waste products to develop a material that can be used to fix cracks in roads, per WFAA.
Hossain talks about the efforts to create the road worthy plastic material here:
“It creates an environmental solution for plastic,” said Hossain, as reported by Fox 4 KDFW. “Plastic is a waste.”
The new plastic-based material is expected to last longer than traditional choices for road repair.
“For [Texas Department of Transportation] or any other agency if they use plastic roads their maintenance drops. If you are maintaining every two years it will become every 5 years,” said Hossain, per Fox 4.
UTA Director of Auxiliary Services Greg Hladik said the longevity of the new material could also mean it is cheaper in the long run.
“You know, this is a great example of the work that our researchers are doing that can really make an impact on the future and drive a greener future,” said Hladik, according to NBC 5 DFW. “It’s a little bit higher upfront cost, but it’s gonna save us significant funds in the future.”
In February, UT Arlington announced that Hossain had received a grant worth roughly $950,000 from the Dallas district of the Texas Department of Transportation. The money will be used to further the development of the material and begin testing potential uses.
Parking lot #49 on the UTA campus is closed for repairs and will be filled with approximately 40,000 square feet of the new material.
UTA civil engineering Ph.D. student Ishraq Faruk said this test will help the team “see how it performs in real life as a parking lot,” per NBC 5.
Plastic roads are expected to be implemented in Dallas and Kaufman counties next, and the search is on for other locations.
Hossain said this material could be “a game-changer … for the pavement industry,” per WFAA. He has already met with the World Bank to discuss how the material could help developing countries, per the February press release.
