Plugging potholes with pot-tech

Gaping potholes seem to be plaguing the roads of South Africa at present, particularly in Gauteng, with a gluttony of deep crevasses seeming to indicate a widespread problem. Pot-Tech, from Polymer Pavements, could help to significantly reduce this problem.

Polymer Pavements CEO, Nick Muller says that the cutting-edge technology that is used allows for a vastly quicker turnaround time in the fixing of potholes.

“Pot-Tech combines two products into a single prepackaged solution, and can be applied by two unskilled people, with minimal equipment, to fix a pothole in about 20 minutes. A polymer-constructed road can be opened to traffic within 24 hours, compared with the 28 days needed for cement to achieve its maximum efficiency,” he says.Muller notes that although the polymer road products cost more than traditional road construction materials such as bitumen and aggregate, less is needed for the same strength, while the process could also use local sand and stone, making it more cost effective than traditional options.

Polymer Pavements has already started to approach provincial and local governments about using the product in job-creation schemes. The product has the added benefit of being environmentally friendly.

The use of polymers for road stabilisation has shown remarkable results all over the world in the stabilisation of base and sub-base layers. Using this technology reduces the amount of layers required in the road, resulting in roads being constructed four times quicker, with substantial savings of at least 30% compared to traditional cement stabilization. In South Africa, the cost per kilometre of constructing a road using polymer materials is about half that of traditional road construction.

Polymer Pavements is a recently formed company, with the licence to a range of US plastics-based products. It was registered in July last year, after acquiring the local licence to distribute a range of products developed by Environmental Protection Services. It is also planning to extend operations into India and Saudi Arabia.

It plans to create jobs, while simultaneously tackling the issue of South Africa’s pothole-riddled provincial roads. The country’s unemployment has soared since last year’s recession, with a quarter of South African’s being unemployed, according to Statistics SA.  They reported that employment declined by 171 000 between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, with the formal sectors losing 140 000 jobs and the informal sector shedding 100 000.

At the same time, the country has an estimated R100 billion backlog in road repairs, according to the Automobile Association, as traffic has increased on the roads while provincial governments have lagged on routine maintenance.Polymer Pavements has received approval from the South African Bureau of Standards for two other products, SoilTech and AsphalTech, used in road construction and maintenance.

Polymer Pavements has partnered with several international companies to develop various industry leading polymer products, with an exclusive focus on manufacturing polymers for use in road construction and the industrial sectors.

All products are manufactured according to ISO9001 and ISO14000 standard, and are tested in accordance with the highest standards to ensure that it meets and exceeds industry requirements.  The structural strengths of polymer technology meet and exceed AASHTO standards.

www.polyroads.com