Use cement for road construction
Published:Friday | August 16, 2024 | 12:05 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Cement is a much better road-building material to use than asphalt. The damaged portion of the Yallahs, St. Thomas leg of the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP), along with the significant wastage of time, raw materials and funds used to build it could have been avoided had cement been used in the first place.
Eight to 12 inches of cement, for example, can be spread in one full layer and after it completely dries/sets can sustain vehicular traffic. The first layer of asphalt is not enough to sustain traffic. As a result using concrete as opposed to asphalt will cut construction time in half. Asphalt absorbs heat so cars parked on that kind of road on a hot day become much hotter than cars parked on concrete. In fact, cement can remain up to 10 degrees cooler than its ‘heat trap’ counterpart, asphalt. Additionally the more heat asphalt absorbs the softer it becomes, which in turn can lead to the formation of cracks and/or holes. In terms of durability, concrete is twice as long-lasting as asphalt.
The hard truth is that concrete is superior to asphalt as a road construction material. This fact is indisputable, from the standpoints of quality, durability, temperature, time and money. A paradigmatic shift is therefore necessary in Jamaica’s road construction industry. The kind of damage that resulted on the Yallahs, St. Thomas leg of the SCHIP which is causing much inconvenience to motorists must not recur in so far as future road construction projects are concerned.
PATRICK GALLIMORE