Firm urges overhaul of road-building methods amid traffic, climate pressures

As rising temperatures and heavier traffic place growing strain on Barbados’ roads, a senior industry figure is urging a shift to more durable materials and modern engineering standards to extend the lifespan of the island’s road network.

Errol Lynch, managing director of Asphalt Processors Inc, said the island must rethink how it builds roads to make them last longer.

Speaking at the company’s two-day seminar to promote a new asphalt binder at the Savannah Beach Club Hotel on Tuesday, Lynch said traditional asphalt was no longer enough to withstand changing climate conditions and increasing pressure from heavier vehicles.

“We have to embrace change and keep on moving the spectrum in terms of what we can do and utilising tools that will carry us from one level to the next,” he said.

Engineers, contractors, government officials and regional figures were brought together at the seminar to discuss modern asphalt technologies and pavement durability.

Lynch explained that the company was looking at introducing polymer-modified asphalt, a material strengthened with synthetic rubber, to improve flexibility and durability on Barbados’ roads.

Asphalt used in the demonstration. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla/Barbados TODAY)

“The asphalt that we’re going to be using, we’re taking the base asphalt that is used now and modifying it. Similar to what you call the 60-70 on steroids,” he said.

“So we’re adding a synthetic rubber to the product to design the pavement to suit whatever condition exists out there. If you have heavy loads, we make the material stiffer to be able to absorb those loads.”

The material was designed to flex under pressure and return to its original shape once the load was removed, Lynch explained.

“It’s a flexible pavement. It moves on load. But we normally would not see it with the naked eye. When the load remove it’s supposed to return to its original position.

“So the polymer allows it to do this for greater length of time. The asphalt that we are using now on the pavement has very limited elastic recovery. So it flexes for a very short period of time and then it breaks.”

Lynch pointed to the runway at Grantley Adams International Airport as an example of where the material had already been used successfully, adding that none of the advanced asphalt products discussed at the seminar were currently being used on the road network.

“We are trying to educate and hope that we could implement different specification to allow us to be able to use this product,” he said.

Asphalt Processors hoped to gradually introduce the technology rather than overhaul the road network all at once, he added. 

“We’re not asking the powers that be to change the whole structure of the road network in one full swoop. We’re taking the steps and look at what’s happening and modify to suit the condition that you have.”

The company also revealed plans to expand the technology across the Caribbean, noting that other territories were experiencing similar climate and roadway challenges.

“Like Barbados, the other Caribbean islands are faced with the same problems,” Lynch said. “We are hoping to roll this out to the entire Caribbean.”

Featured speaker Dr Geoffrey Rowe, an American asphalt and paving engineer, used the seminar to outline the evolution of asphalt testing and modern performance-based road engineering, including computerised testing methods designed to simulate long-term roadway conditions.

The industry was moving away from older manual testing systems towards “computerized data driven stuff that was developed 35 years ago”, said Lynch. 

He explained that one testing process could simulate how asphalt would perform after a decade of exposure to traffic and weather conditions.

“We [are] aging the asphalt. Then we take the asphalt from that rolling thin film oven and put it through a [pressure aging vessel] which simulate the working conditions over ten years. 

“So all that equipment we have in our lab and we hope to be able to use it someday other than the airport.”

Lynch stressed that future engineers and students of engineering would have to design roads capable of handling rising temperatures and growing traffic demands.

“If outside is getting hotter, the loads are increasing, you build a stiffer pavement to resist the temperature and the loads that you’re placing on it,” he added, noting that the next generation would play a critical role in developing stronger and more climate-resilient road networks across Barbados and the wider Caribbean.

The seminar concludes on Wednesday at the Savannah Beach Club Hotel, focusing on pavement performance, tropical climate specifications and high-performance materials for road network improvement.

(LE)