Asphalt road and concrete road are the two most common road types. They have different advantages and disadvantages. This article lists of asphalt road vs concrete road from the construction cost, maintenance methods, advantages and disadvantages, etc.
What is Asphalt Road?
Asphalt road is the road paved with asphalt materials mixed mineral materials. The more common classification methods of asphalt road are asphalt concrete road, factory mixed asphalt gravel road, asphalt penetration road, road mixed asphalt crushed (gravel) stone road and asphalt surface treatment road.
What is Concrete Road?
Concrete road is the road with concrete as the surface (with or without reinforcement). It includes ordinary concrete, reinforced concrete, continuous reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, steel fiber concrete and prefabricated concrete.
Cost of Asphalt vs Concrete Roads
Asphalt cost
The price of asphalt concrete is generally calculated according to the square centimeter. The current price in China is 2 US dollars per square centimeter. Asphalt laying thickness includes 13cm, 15cm and 18cm according to the needs of design.
Suppose that the thickness of asphalt concrete on a certain section of road is 15cm. Then the price of asphalt concrete is 15cm*2 US dollars/square centimeter =30 US dollars.
Concrete cost
The price of concrete is generally calculated according to the cubic meter. The general designation for road concrete is C30. at present, the price of concrete is 50US dollars per cubic meter in China, the cost of laying machinery and workers are less than 30 US dollars. So the price of concrete road per cubic meter in total is less than 80 US dollars. The thickness of road laying concrete is about 20 cm or 24cm. According to the thickness of 20 cm, the laying price of C30 per square meter is 0.22*1*80 =17.6 US dollars.
Maintenance of Asphalt Road vs Concrete Road
Maintenance of asphalt road
With the rolling of vehicle and weather factors, asphalt road will appear ruts, push bags, cracks, loose, subsidence and other types of problems. It needs to be prevented from materials, design, construction, maintenance and traffic management.
Daily milling and maintenance of asphalt road, the construction process includes placing the safety maintenance sign→ full scale plotting → milling → loading of waste → cleaning waste → dust blowing → brushing asphalt paint → asphalt paving → leveling → roller rolling → sealing with casting glue → maintenance.
Maintenance of concrete road
With the reasons of larger tonnage vehicles, lack of drainage, and different fillings of the roadbed, concrete road will appear cracks, broken plates, surface damage, joint fragmentation and other problems. It needs to be prevented from raw material control, control of water-cement ratio, filler quality and other aspects.
Daily maintenance of concrete road, the construction process includes safety maintenance sign→ full scale plotting → breaking the damaged concrete → dust blowing → laying steel mesh and welding → brushing concrete interface agent → mixing fast concrete → vibrating with vibrator → leveling → maintenance.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Asphalt Road
Advantages of asphalt road
Elasticity and shock absorption: asphalt has excellent elasticity, which can effectively slow down the vibration of the vehicle.
Flatness and comfort: asphalt construction is relatively flexible and can better adapt to terrain changes, so it can create a more flat road surface, which not only can improve driving comfort, but also reduce the fatigue of the driver.
Convenient construction: the asphalt construction has advantage of fast speed, simple process and strong adaptability.
Disadvantages of asphalt road
The disadvantages of asphalt road is high temperature sensitivity. The strength decreases in summer, and if it is not controlled well, it will make the road soft or destroy the emulsified asphalt. Asphalt materials becomes brittle at low temperature, which may cause pavement cracking.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Concrete Road
Advantages of concrete road
Concrete road has strong bearing capacity: The elastic modulus of concrete road is 20000-50000MPa, the deformation under loader is small, the the diffusion load capacity is large.
Concrete road has excellent durability: Under the premise of correct design and guarantee of construction quality, concrete road has excellent durability, frost resistance, skid resistance and wear resistance. Concrete is an inorganic material, only weathering problems, but there is no aging problem of organic materials such as asphalt. Concrete road has strong corrosion resistance, and is relatively insensitive to oil, salt and alkali and other chemical and biological media that are easily corroded asphalt.
The material of concrete road is easy to obtain and beneficial to environmental protection: Because the concrete pavement has low requirements on the abrasive value and wear value of coarse aggregate, the coarse aggregate rock types can be used widely. When the surface water flows through or permeates the concrete road, it is pollution-free to the surrounding soil and groundwater.
Low construction cost: The construction road of concrete road is only about half that of asphalt road.
Disadvantages of concrete road
Although concrete is widely used as the construction materials, due to its disadvantages, the concrete is rarely used in highway construction.
Rigidity and brittleness: concrete road is relatively rigid and lacks the elasticity of asphalt. This rigidity makes concrete road more prone to cracking and damage during vehicle driving, becoming a safety hazard on the highway.
Poor water resistance: concrete road has poor resistance to water and is easily soaked by rain. Water accumulation not only affects the skid resistance of the road surface, but also accelerates the aging and wear of the road surface, increasing the cost of maintenance.
Long construction period: The construction period of concrete road is longer, and more time is needed for maintenance. In the construction of highways, rapid construction and opening to traffic as soon as possible is crucial, and concrete pavement obviously does not have an advantage in this respect.
Equipment of Mixing Asphalt and Concrete
Asphalt mixing plant
The construction of asphalt road requires asphalt concrete. Asphalt mixing plant is the equipment for mixing asphalt concrete.
According to the move mode, asphalt mixing plant is divided into: mobile asphalt plant, semi-fixed asphalt plant and stationary asphalt plant.
According to the output, asphalt mixing plant is divided into: small plant (less than 40 tons/h), medium plant (40 ton to 400ton per hour) and large plant (more than 400 tons/h).
According to the mixing mode, asphalt mixing plant is divided into: continuous drum type plant and bath type asphalt plant.
Concrete batching plant
The construction of concrete road requires the mixed concrete mixture. Concrete batching plant is the equipment for mixing concrete.
According to the move mode: concrete batching plant is divided into: mobile concrete batch plant, stationary concrete bath plant.
According to the application: concrete batching plant is divided into: commercial concrete batching plant and engineering concrete batching plant.
According to the mixing mode: concrete batching plant is divided into: batch type concrete plant and continuous concrete batching plant.
