Industry Spotlight manufacturing
along two North Texas highways to stop
slope failure from destroying the roadway – a problem researchers say is almost
everywhere in Texas. Motorists speeding
down Highway 287 in Midlothian may not
notice the difference, but the state surely
will, as the improvements to the roadway
will last 15 to 20 years before needing
maintenance, according to Hossain.
The scheme’s low price is matched by
its high effectiveness. In a two-year feasibility study, sections of Highway 287
with the 10-foot-long pins drilled into
the roadway slope moved only one to two
inches. Hossain’s team reinforced only
part of the hillside so they could contrast
it with the section where the plastic pins
were inserted.
The untreated area shows a noticeably
steeper drop-off from the original crack in
the pavement, approximately 15 to 16 inches. With reinforcement from these plastic
pins, Hossain predicts highways will last
15 to 20 years before needing maintenance.
Hossain has plenty of material to work
with: it is estimated that Americans throw
away 35 billion plastic bottles each year.
That doesn’t even take into account plastic
recyclables available the world over.
Because they are made from recycled
plastic—each pin contains about 500 soda
bottles—the pin concept turns plastic’s
non-decomposition from an environmental headache to an engineering solution. Five hundred soda bottles are used
to make just one pin. Multiply that by 600
and that’s about 300,000 soda bottles being kept out of the landfills for just one
stretch of highway.
“Texas has limited resources available
to maintain state highways, so anything
we can do to extend the life of our roads is
Highway innovation
A team of UT Arlington
researchers gather along
U.S. 287 to install recycled
plastic pins in failed soil
along that highway’s
slope. Sahadat Hossain, a
UT Arlington associate
professor of Civil
Engineering, designed the
system which has had
some success in Texas.
good for our state,” Hossain said in a news
release by UT Arlington. “Our innovative
process strengthens the soil slopes with
recyclable plastics in a way that is good for
motorists and the earth.”
Ashfaq Adnan, an assistant professor
of mechanical and aerospace eng