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History of Asphalt Pavement For Highway Transportation

Posted by aditya | 11:25 PM | | 1 comments »




This article is about highway and transport engineering, this time we talk about History of Asphalt Pavement

Asphalt was first used as a surfacing for roads in Paris in 1858, when the Rue Begere was surfaced with Val de Travers asphalt. Two years later three sides of the Palais Royal were similarly treated. (The English novelist Charlist Dickens was a frequent visitor to Paris at the time, and in an essay publishes in the Uncommercial Traveler of 1860 he refers to the cleanliness of asphalt surfacing. It may be that he was an interested observer of these early experiments.)

In 1870, the first asphalt pavement was laid in London’s Threadneedle Streets. This work was rapidly extended, and by 1875 most of the major roads in the commercial “Square Mile” of the city had surfacing of Val de Travers asphalt. The asphalt used in both Paris and London was derived by crushing natural limestone impregnated with bitumen. The powder derived contained about 6 to 8 percent bitumen. It was heated on site to about 250⁰F before being spread to the required thickness, generally between 1.5 and 2.5 in. the compaction was carried out using heavy rammers heated in a roadside brazier. This method of laying continued in use well into the 1930s.

(source : design and performance of road pavements by david croney, paul croney)



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Author: aditya