This paper examines the environmental consequences of conventional asphalt and tar-based road surfaces and proposes a novel three-layer road construction system designed to reduce ecological damage. The author reviews how current road surfaces contribute to chemical runoff, habitat disruption, and carbon emissions before introducing an alternative design incorporating reclaimed rubber pellets as a base layer, electrical conduit layers with piezoelectric and solar collection tiles, and organic vegetation matrices for carbon scrubbing. A computer simulation-based methodology is proposed to test materials and design configurations across real-world conditions. The proposal argues that successful implementation would reduce U.S. carbon emissions, decrease dependence on foreign oil, and generate electricity through thermoelectric and piezoelectric energy harvesting — producing significant benefits for both environmental and economic policy.
The paper employs a classic problem-solution-methodology structure characteristic of strong research proposals. Each section builds on the previous one: environmental harms are documented first to motivate the design proposal, the design is then described in detail, and the methodology explains exactly how it will be validated. This logical progression makes the proposal persuasive and easy to evaluate on academic and practical grounds.
An opening overview frames road surfaces as a global environmental problem. The introduction section combines a detailed three-layer design description with analysis of ecological consequences and a defense of proposed materials. A dedicated Project Description section outlines a two-phase computer simulation methodology covering material selection and real-world stress testing. The conclusion broadens the argument to include economic and geopolitical implications, while a brief budget section grounds the proposal in practical resource planning.
The negative effects of road surfaces on local, regional, and national ecosystems are empirically evidenced and represent a large contributing factor to the increasingly large carbon footprint of developed nations (Switalski et al., 2004). The use of primarily asphalt and tar-based paving techniques, though providing an effective road surface, is damaging not only in the retention of solar radiation — which raises the internal temperature of the earth — but also in the associated chemical runoff and the necessary disruption of existing vegetation and animal life (Forman, 1999). The impact of human manufacturing and agricultural enterprise on the climate is seemingly an inevitability of civilization. However, there are areas of waste that can be limited or repurposed, initially at some expense but ultimately beneficial in the long term — not only for individual nations, but also for the global environment (Switalski et al., 2004).
Road surfaces are composed primarily of tar and asphalt-based pavement. This static substance leaches harmful toxins such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into the soil and groundwater — not only as a result of asphalt's inherent chemical makeup, but also as a result of its interaction with vehicles and their associated waste (Kosson et al., 2002). Furthermore, when road surfaces must be replaced approximately once every ten years, large quantities of road material must either be reused or disposed of, spreading the effects of such toxins beyond roadways and surrounding areas into landfills and playgrounds, where they may potentially come into direct contact with community water tables or even children and family pets.
Using alternative paving materials, while still utilizing the highly inorganic and ecologically disruptive method of "paving," is counterproductive in that the inherent problems with road surfaces stem as much from their construction as from their chemical composition (Reid, 2000). There is enough paved roadway in the United States alone to drive to the moon and back. This incomprehensibly large space serves no purpose other than the conveyance of human beings and goods from one point to another (Reid, 2000). While transportation is vital to the continuation of human progress, the method by which that transportation is achieved is constrained only by efficacy and imagination.
Currently, technologies are in development that will allow for the collection of heat energy from paved roads — not only for the purposes of contributing to the national grid through thermoelectric generation, but also for preventing ice from forming within road beds during winter (Switalski et al., 2004). Additionally, piezoelectric devices can convert the pressure of cars driving over the road surface directly into electricity. There is also a great deal of research into the use of alternate materials that can minimize the negative effects of chemical leaching and ecological disruption (Forman & Deblinger, 2000).
This research, conducted independently, may aid in the attainment of energy efficiency and environmental protection goals. However, each of these projects is being conducted independently of the others. What this study proposes is a combination of existing and yet-to-be-developed road surface technologies and construction techniques that would capitalize on the inherent energy transfer between cars and the road surface, as well as between the sun and the road surface. This, in combination with a more effective and dynamic containment matrix, may ultimately have not only a long-term positive impact on the environment but also on the immediate ecological systems surrounding the road surface. The proposal is to test heat-sensor receptor panels utilizing both solar and pressure energy in combination with a reclaimed rubber pellet bed set within a natural vegetation matrix.
The need for improved road surfaces and road construction is apparent not only in the sheer number of automobiles traveling those roads, but also in the extremely negative environmental effects of inorganic structures that cover an area roughly equivalent to the size of South Carolina (Forman & Alexander, 1998). Agriculture and manufacturing are necessary industries, and the current dependence on oil — which is no longer abundant in North America — makes disasters like the BP oil spill and the Exxon Valdez spill, which devastate ocean ecosystems and severely disrupt carbon cycling through marine ecosystems, an inevitability. Though altering the construction and surface of roads is a somewhat indirect approach to addressing global change, the tangential effects of making even small changes in this enormous system will have highly significant positive consequences in the pursuit of developing planetary homeostasis, where human needs and environmental concerns are equally balanced.
The proposed road surface and bed design is divided into three discrete sections. The base layer, which is typically ash or other waste material, would instead be composed of tightly packed reclaimed rubber pellets held in place by hard rubber barriers laid along the length of the road. The use of reclaimed rubber in place of ash, slag, or broken concrete will allow for more effective drainage, as well as accommodating natural thawing and freezing cycles without resulting in the characteristic stress fractures that occur in static materials such as concrete and asphalt. Furthermore, rubber will produce fewer negative effects from the leaching of harmful chemicals and will accommodate natural vegetation pushing up from below — something that is highly problematic with static asphalt.
The second layer will comprise various electrical conduits connecting individual tile energy-collection points along the length of the road surface. Though this will entail some disruption to the ecological system by requiring the construction of charge stations at intervals along road surfaces — ideally fitted within existing highway service stations — the more environmentally friendly materials will ultimately work in concert with natural ecosystems, developing roadways that actively contribute to fuel independence as well as a healthier environment. Waterproofing of the conduits and individual tiles will be necessary to ensure the integrity of the various electrical components. The conduits will also serve to fix the tiles in place, ensuring that when bearing the sometimes unevenly distributed load of vehicles, they will not shift in unsafe ways.
The final component of this system is the actual road surface, which will be composed of solar and pressure heat-collection tiles separated by a matrix of organic vegetation. Though vegetation in a road surface is extremely problematic in the context of traditional paving, in this new and innovative road system it serves a dual purpose. Using small sections of organic matter such as moss between the tiles will allow for carbon scrubbing from vehicle exhaust, facilitate more effective drainage of the road surface, and render it relatively impervious to freeze-thaw cycles.
The entirety of this new road structure would be bounded on either side by hard rubber walls that force the rubber pellets to remain tightly packed beneath the conduits. The use of rubber, as opposed to more static substances, again addresses the issue of a road surface needing to shift, expand, and contract — sometimes by significant distances. In the heat of summer, bridges with a great deal of road surface have been known to expand by as much as an entire kilometer in either direction. While this kind of expansion would be devastating to a static material, rubber would simply flex, allowing expansion without any perceptible change in the integrity or stability of the road itself.
The proposed new road structure would not only contribute to the national grid and further the realistic proliferation of truly electric cars, but would also allow the United States to reduce its carbon footprint and decrease its dependence on foreign oil. The global change implications of converting all U.S. roadway to a system such as that proposed above are enormous.
In the United States and Canada, people drive more than on any other continent. North America also has more road surface than any other continent on earth. The carbon emissions from U.S. motor vehicles alone are an estimated 268 grams per kilometer (Grimmond, 2007) — higher than any other country in the world. Incorporating organic CO₂-scrubbing materials into the road surface may greatly reduce the impact not only of individual vehicles, but may also put the solar radiation that asphalt and tar absorb to better use.
The impact of road systems on the environment extends far beyond their contribution to the human carbon footprint. Roadways and the methods by which they are constructed result in far-reaching consequences for ecosystems both in the immediate vicinity of the roadway and those tangentially connected via streams and food chains (Forman, 1999). In order to lay a road, land must be cleared of vegetation and wildlife. This disruption to the homeostatic balance of an environment affects all living organisms within it (Forman & Deblinger, 2000). Beyond the land needed specifically for the road surface itself, additional space must be cleared to provide access for construction vehicles and laborers, resulting in further loss of vegetation and animal life. As the road is being laid, the fumes from chemical materials and the concussive force of construction equipment are devastating to local wildlife (Forman & Alexander, 1998). The result is displaced organisms that ultimately put increased pressure on other ecosystems for food, land, and water. The full extent of these ripple effects remains largely unknown.
In instances where above- or below-ground water supplies must be altered to make way for a new road system, the effects are even more dire. When laying the bed of a road, it is nearly impossible to prevent a percentage of the chemicals used in the road surface from leaching into the soil (Forman & Deblinger, 2000). When those toxins come into contact with water, they are carried along the course of the water supply, affecting all of the vegetation and wildlife it encounters. Furthermore, small, otherwise innocuous streams may become channelized as a result of road construction. To channelize a stream means that its flow is concentrated and steered in more convenient directions (Switalski et al., 2004). However, the increased pressure of a higher volume of water results in greater erosion and may have negative consequences for local fish and amphibious populations. The increased water flow may also concentrate any toxins or waste leaching into the water supply so that, rather than existing at relatively harmless levels, those toxins become more consequential in their impact on vegetation, wildlife, and even local human populations (Kosson et al., 2002).
The materials proposed for this new road system are highly unorthodox. The use of reclaimed rubber, vegetation, and solar/pressure-sensitive tiles is a combination that has not previously been considered in road surfacing, largely due to the perception that it would result in an unstable driving surface endangering motorists. It is the contention of this proposal, however, that the tiles comprising the primary road surface — anchored in place by a series of heavy-duty conduits — would provide at least as stable a driving surface as that provided by asphalt. Furthermore, the fact that each tile is independent allows for more dynamic movement and simpler repairs than are possible with asphalt. Potholes, cracked roads, and unexpected sinkholes would be effectively impossible with this new proposed surface. Reclaimed rubber is free of the most prominent drawbacks associated with asphalt; it has not previously been adopted in road construction simply because it is untested.
You’re 58% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 3 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.