U.K. based Directa Plus recently unveiled the world’s first road resurfaced using a super-modifier that contains graphene from the company’s Graphene Plus (G+) product line. The company said in its announcement that the road surface is on a section in Rome’s Strada Provinciale Ardeatina and was a commercial test for Ecopave, an offering based on Directa’s G+ products.
For the record, Ecopave was developed through three years’ worth of research work, by a collaboration between Directa and Iterchimica. Iterchimica is a company based out of Italy which makes products that improve the performance of asphalt and the laying of road surfaces, with an aim to increase the safety, efficiency and environmental sustainability of the roads.
Successful tests in the laboratory, which showed that Ecopave is able to enhance fatigue resistance by up to 250 percent, prompted initiation of the first phase of Ecopave testing, sources familiar with the matter said. By increasing the fatigue resistance, Ecopave can extend the service life of road surface more significantly, at a lower lifecycle cost than existing tarmacs.
The first phase of Ecopave testing involves the refurbishment of two upper layers of a section in Strada Provinciale Ardeatin that is 1 kilometer long and is being done by Iterchimica in association with the Metropolitan City of Rome and University La Sapienza, Rome, the sources further stated.
Technically, Ecopave, improves the physical and mechanical performance of a surface by increasing its resilience to deformation. It also helps to lower the surface’s sensitivity to ambient temperature fluctuations.
Giulio Cesareo, CEO and founder of Directa Plus mentioned that environmental sustainability is one of the core company values. The road surface application of the G+ family of products perfectly aligns with these values and allows the company to help in creating roads that last longer, he added. Mr. Giulio also said that this represents another example of the extensive application of G+ technology into large established markets where the company can substantially improve product performance.
