Light colourd asphalt

In the Netherlands many roads are illuminated in the evening and at night. Both inside and outside urban areas and from bicycle paths to motorways. This public lighting consumes a tremendous amount of energy, which also means considerable CO2-emissions. Dura Vermeer has developed Luminumpave, a light coloured asphalt to reduce public lighting. The maximum effect is obtained by using a light coloured stone, an almost colourless synthetic binder and white pigment. The lighter colour also has an effect on road safety and on the thermal properties of the asphalt. As part of an innovation cooperation with Rijkswaterstaat in September 2011 on motorway A35 a test section is laid. A reference section with the top layer of standard two-layer porous asphalt (PA) 8 and three variants Luminumpave were realised (PA 8 with black bitumen, and PA 8 and SMA 11 with colourless binder) with a total length of 625 meters. The purpose of this test section was to investigate the suitability as a wearing course on motorways and the quantification of the effect on the public lighting. The studies and measurements have focused on:
* the civil engineering properties to assess the applicability;
* the light reflection properties in order to determine the reduction in illumination.
From the civil engineering research it can be concluded that Luminumpave is suitable for use on motorways. The lighting investigation has shown that a reduction of the public lighting of more than 40% is possible. This means huge energy savings and associated reduction in CO2-emissions. Also on unlit roads a light coloured surface seems to be very interesting. The visibility of a light coloured road surface is much better than that of a standard (dark coloured) road surface. Less rutting is expected, because due to the light colour, lower temperatures were measured in the underlighing binder layer.