You may not often think it,
but roads are some of the most complex pieces
of infrastructure that mankind can produce.
And the methods of producing them are equal parts ingenious
and surprisingly mesmerizing to see.
From building roads across desserts,
to drones carrying out pothole repairs.
Let’s take a look at some mind-blowing road technologies
you probably never considered.
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Tiger Stone.
Have you ever found satisfaction
in the perfect tessellation of brick road paving?
If so, I have the perfect machine for you.
It may look like a giant printer,
but this is the Tiger Stone Road Paver.
It’s a slow moving,
electric-powered paver that crawls along the road,
laying a perfectly-assembled trail of bricks behind it.
Workers on the machine’s galley take the bricks
from the holding hoppers on top and place them
onto the moving shear plate,
arranging them into the desired pattern.
This plate then feeds the interlocking bands
of bricks downwards
at a speed the workers can easily keep up with.
Gravity helps to secure the pattern in place
before it’s gently laid onto the road surface
as the machine rolls forwards.
In contrast to traditional practices
which rely on workers placing each brick
onto the road by hand,
this method saves time, effort,
and back pain for all involved.
At almost 20 feet wide,
this stony printer has the capacity to lay just
under 3,300 square-feet of paving per day
when manned by just two people.
But it can also be adjusted to print-pave smaller roads,
in case you’re strapped for available land.
Why can’t my printer print roads?
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Golden Gate Bridge Road Zipper.
Rush hour might just be the ultimate bane
of a motorist’s existence.
In built-up city areas like San Francisco,
records show commuters can lose up
to five days a year trapped in congestion.
But as you probably imagined,
there’s a machine designed to help with that.
This is the Golden Gate Bridge Barrier Transfer Machine,
also nicknamed The Road Zipper,
and you can see why.
It’s designed to change the position of the concrete
or steel lane dividers separating
the two directions of traffic.
Before rush hour, the road zipper will shift the barriers
to give drivers an extra lane to help ease congestion
in the busier direction.
The vehicle uses an S shaped inverted conveyor channel
in its undercarriage,
which is basically a high-powered roller system
that lifts the barrier segments up and transfers them
to a new position.
It’s an impressive task,
considering there are 3,200 blocks making
up the full moveable barrier
over the 1.7 mile-long bridge,
with each segment weighing 1,500 pounds.
Now that’s what you call a heavy-duty zipper.
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Electreon Wireless Electric Roads.
At this point, around 14 countries and over 20 cities
around the world have proposed future bans
on vehicles powered by fossil fuels.
France, Norway, the UK, and even China are all preparing
to get from A to B without their foot on the gas,
but how will that be made possible?
One option has been offered by company Electreon,
who specialize in Wireless Electric Roads.
Already used in projects in Tel Aviv and Sweden,
this Israeli company has a road design capable
of wirelessly powering electric vehicles
while they’re driving.
The execution of this technology is achieved
by integrating a narrow copper coil
into existing asphalt roads,
linked to the electric grid,
and synced to installable vehicle hardware.
According to Electreon,
the process of installing one mile of this coil
from start to finish can be achieved in just a few days.
A receiver under the electric vehicle chassis,
linked to Electreon’s dynamic
wireless power transfer system,
allows the vehicle to harness power wirelessly
while it travels.
In theory, this eliminates the need
for bulky batteries,
and providing the car only drives on these types of roads,
it can be powered indefinitely.
If combined with a rechargeable battery
for traveling off-the-grid,
this could well be a viable solution
to powering electric vehicles in the future.
Now this is the future Scalextric kids prepared for.
Nextrencher Trencher Disc.
From wiring to drainage,
a lot of stuff needs to be excavated and buried
when upgrading a road,
and for that you need a machine that can really punch
through the asphalt.
The Nextrencher Trencher Disc D-80 is a high-powered tool
that can cut through and remove urban materials
like concrete and asphalt to a depth of almost three feet.
Usually, excavation disks used in trenching projects
like this are exposed.
But when you’re trying to keep fast traffic moving,
the last thing you need is for stones and bits of debris
to go flying into oncoming vehicles.
Instead, the Nextrencher design encloses the entire top
of the disk,
meaning there’s no disruption to traffic,
and laborers can work safely alongside it.
Debris is fed up through a conveyor belt
or chain to an extractor which then deposits the fragments
on the side on the road.
Its efficient design means the disk trencher can cut
around 330 feet an hour,
depending on the surface at hand.
And maybe a little longer if someone falls underneath.
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Self-Repairing Cities Initiative.
The world seems to be obsessed with drones these days,
and it can get a little exhausting,
but there are actually some incredible potential uses
for drones that you’d probably never expect,
like repairing potholes.
Researchers from the University of Leeds have put
forward their solution of using drones
with 3D printing capabilities to fill in potholes.
Although it’s still in its concept phase,
this could prove to be the answer
to on-demand pothole filing.
The researchers have explained that,
in theory, the drones would be able to scan potholes
on a closed road to get the orientation of the indent.
With that information,
they can then use an attached extruder machine
to pour materials like asphalt,
or tar into the hole in a specific pattern
to give it a smooth finish.
It all seems very promising,
and I really hope the tech is all it’s cracked up to be.
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ETI Roller Barrier.
Traffic barriers and jersey barriers may help you feel safe
on the road,
but anyone who’s been in a collision
with one will tell you they’re no fun to hit.
But there is a safer way forward.
Take a look at the ETI Roller System developed
in South Korea.
This design does way more than just preventing vehicles
from diving off the road.
These rollers are able to convert a good deal
of the impact energy into rotational energy.
This prevents the vehicle from breaking through the barrier
and instead redirects the vehicle back onto the road.
The rollers themselves are made
from a material called Ethylene Vinyl-Acetate,
or EVA for short.
EVA’s rubber-like structure and lightweight form means
that the rollers aren’t easily damaged,
even when they’re hit by heavy Vehicles
like trucks and buses.
Everything about the design helps
to propel the vehicle forward,
which is what traditional crash barriers do,
only not this efficiently,
so if you ever find yourself head-on with one of these,
just roll with it.
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Geocells.
Building a road from scratch can require much more
than just slapping down a ton of asphalt.
Depending on the terrain you may need
to take soil erosion into account,
and employ methods
to prevent your hard-built road crumbling apart.
That’s why some construction companies use Geocells.
These are made from geosynthetic materials designed
to be durable enough to reinforce the soil bed
to withstand up to 5,080 pounds of pressure per foot.
The cellular design and base component can be changed
depending the application,
meaning no matter what kind
of soil the project is planned on,
Geocells can help maintain structural integrity.
In this instance, a series of stretched perforated cells
are being used to prevent base level erosion
on a highway shoulder.
But they can also be used in extreme circumstances
like stabilizing sand-based foundations
across stretches of desert.
It’s pretty impressive,
and just goes to show that everyone benefits
from a little support once in a while, even roads.
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Python 5000 Pothole Patcher.
Potholes are the enemy of all road users,
and are capable of turning a completely normal road
into an infuriating obstacle course.
They’re so reviled that back in 2011,
the UK’s Automobile Association joked
about literally highlighting
how sick they were of their nation’s plentiful potholes.
To combat this scourge of the roads,
the inventors at Superior Roads Solutions have created
the Python 5000 Pothole Patcher.
Unlike traditional methods of pothole patching
which require a lot of manual labor,
the Pothole Patcher is able to fill and patch any hole
with the operator comfortably sat in the machine’s cabin.
The five ton hopper located behind the cabin
uses an exhaust circulation system to keep hot asphalt hot,
or warm up cold asphalt to a working temperature
of around 300 Fahrenheit.
It’s then fed through into a four foot
extendable working arm at the front of the cabin,
then sprayed out of the arm’s nozzle.
The asphalt is then leveled out by an attached rake,
before being compacted into the hole by the arm’s roller
for a smooth finish.
What’s more, Superior Roads claim the Python 5000
is three times faster
than a three-person crew doing the same job.
Suddenly it seems like we might win the war on potholes,
but we may have to bow down
to our robotic pothole-fixing overlords in the process.
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Power Curber 7700.
Have you ever noticed the long, unbroken lines
of concrete barriers that sometimes skirt stretches
of the highway?
Being as long and continuous as they are,
you may have wondered how they got there in the first place.
They’re actually made on-site
by a method of called slip forming,
where cement concrete is poured and molded
by a continuously moving machine.
When you combine that method
with some additional mechanical ingenuity,
you get the Power Curber 7700.
It features a telescopic frame which allows the machine
to straddle the triangular shape of two metal grids.
Once in position, cement concrete is fed by a conveyor belt
into the forming house,
where it is mechanically applied
to the triangular metal frame.
As the machine slowly moves along,
cement concrete passes down onto the frame and is smoothed,
creating a seamless highway barrier wall.
With the conveyor, tracks, and straddle device,
this machine can weigh in at a colossal 80,000 pounds.
But of course, the Power Curber never lets its weight
become a barrier to success.
Gomaco.
When it comes to the kings of slip-forming machines,
a company called Gomaco sits at the top.
Their colossal units provide different types
of paving depending on the project,
but can also be customized
to fit the most impossible-looking endeavors.
What you see here is a Gomaco GP3 Slip Form Paver.
Designed to pave floor coverings up to 30 feet wide.
It works by placing a measured supply of concrete
in front of the paver,
which is then spread, shaped, and consolidated
at a specific height.
But Gomaco doesn’t just produce
one size fits all slip forming machines;
just take a look at the customized GP-2600,
used in the creation of Turkey’s Batman Canal system.
No, not that Batman.
This four-track slip-former was designed
with a sectional, trapezoidal mold
which could be adjusted for different slopes and depths.
A work bridge behind the paver was also installed,
so workers could apply a trowel finish by hand
to the molded cement concrete.
Despite the complexity,
overall production topped out at an impressive rate
of 1,969 feet per day,
which is just under half the main span length
of the Golden Gate bridge.
Now that’s how you pave the way to success.
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Leeboy 8500.
Relaying an asphalt road
is a fairly common construction task,
but what kind of machines can you employ
to re-surface asphalt on your driveway?
Get ready for the Leeboy 8500.
This machine is part of a specialized series
of conveyor asphalt pavers that are some
of the most efficient on the market.
Asphalt pavers work by transferring asphalt
from the hopper to a heated auger
via a conveyor belt.
The auger will then place a measured amount
of the heated asphalt in front of the screed,
which is a fancy name for a tool used to smooth materials.
What makes the 8500 so practical is
that it has a 15-foot-wide screed footprint.
The perfect size to drag asphalt over surfaces
like driveways for a clean finish.
And with a seven and a half ton hopper,
it’s able to lay a lot of asphalt in one go.
Perfect for when the perfectly reasonable urge
to build a road seizes you on a Saturday afternoon.
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Did any of these amazing road-building
technologies surprise you?
Let me know in the comments below,
and thanks for watching.
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