New Default for Asphalt?
The vast majority of the nearly 2 million miles of paved roads in the United States are surfaced with asphalt pavement, which is made by combining a thick hydrocarbon mixture known as liquid asphalt binder with sand, gravel, or crushed stone ("aggregate"). Each year about 60 million tons of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavement are laid on U.S. roads, according to figures presented last spring at the 12th Annual Minnesota Pavement Conference. Asphalt pavement is tough, flexible, and easy to repair, but the commonly used HMA is energy-intensive to produce, releases greenhouse gases, and poses potential hazards for workers. So researchers are looking at lower-temperature asphalt pavements as a way around these problems.