TARMACADAM ROAD SURFACING

Roads achieve a significant role in the economy and society by acting as an integral part of the transport system. As a result, they should be maintained in good condition and also, be resurfaced periodically. Road surface ought to feature the appropriate standard of smoothness and grip to encourage the smooth flow of traffic.

Tarmacadam is among the several available substances used to create roads. Several years past, roads all over the world were made of tarmacadam, which is why you may hear the term tarmac used to portray a large flat paved area such as airport runway.
To construct roads out of tarmacadam, you start with a layer of large broken rocks or concrete. On top of these layers, some smaller material is laid and run over with a roller to pack the material tightly. The moment these layers are tightly packed, a layer of tar is spread atop and just as before the roller is utilized to force the tar into any feasible cracks that may be left within the layers of the rocky materials. This procedure produces an excellent surface for cars as well as other vehicles.

An advantage of using tarmacadam is the fact that it can easily be repaired. The top coating is only scraped off leaving behind a grooved (rough) surface area, after that, a fresh tar layer is applied, and once again a roller is used to smooth the surface.
Before the invention of asphalt, tarmacadam was generally used, however, the main setback with it is that it is not as durable as asphalt. As the number of cars using it increase, tarmacadam has shown to be less durable than other surfaces. Besides its durability, asphalt has some problems that tarmacadam does not have, the most important one being that it is a petroleum-based product, which implies that the process used to produce asphalt is not ecologically friendly. One other issue with asphalt is that often you need to remove it first and then repaved making it very difficult to fix. In some developing nations, tarmacadam is still widely used to build roads.

Furthermore, looking at things from an environmental stand point tarmacadam may be one way to reduce ecological footprint. The use of tarmacadam could be a means of taking into consideration the past so as to move towards the future and this traditional method of constructing roads could be an option for companies that construct roads, to reduce expenses while constructing new roads.

The so when next you are driving down the road, take a closer look at the surface. Is it constructed by using tarmacadam? If it is not, you may start to question why tarmacadam is not used more extensively these days.