Self-draining concrete solution to road flooding
Road flooding is a perennial problem during rainy season in the Philippines. Aside from slowing down traffic to the inconvenience of motorists and commuters, flood poses public safety and health concerns.
One cause of flooding is the clogging of drainage with trash and debris. A clogged drainage prevents rainwater from properly flowing to canals that lead to storm drains, leaving it to collect on the pavement. Despite the annual drainage cleanup before the onset of the wet months, flooded roads remain a common sight in cities. But a solution is now out in the market.
Cemex Holdings Philippines is introducing Aquacrete, a permeable concrete ideal for roads, carparks, sidewalks and homes.
Aquacrete came about because of Cemex’s culture of technological innovation, which set the company as the global leader in the building materials industry. Observing that water pools above concrete can become a slipping hazard, Cemex engineers developed a safer concrete. By combining selected aggregates, Cemex cement, and a proprietary admixture, small voids, and channels were created in the concrete to make it permeable but still structurally strong and load bearing.
“A parking lot or sidewalk built from Aquacrete could act as a giant drainage with its numerous voids and channels allowing water or fluid to flow freely through it,” said Patrick Ozaeta, Cemex business development manager. “The voids and channels are so small that no trash gets through to clog it. Water would be able to flow better to the canals and into storm drains thus suppressing the potential for a flood.”
Aquacrete is not only safe but also sustainable. The collected water can reduce household and industrial water consumption.
“We envision a future where homes have driveways that drain water into reservoirs for use in flushing toilets and watering the garden or other uses,” added Ozaeta.
Innovations like Aquacrete are not only practical, but also promote peoples’ safety and help protect properties from the effects of flooding. Definitely seen as a way forward, Aquacrete is redefining the capacities of design to become an enabler for a more sustainable future.
“We are taking something as common and established as concrete which has been around for thousands of years and pushing the limit of what you can do with the material. The future of design is in the continuous improvement and engineering of the systems, products, and structures we already have, like what we did with Aquacrete,” said Arturo Rodriguez, Cemex business development director.
Aquacrete can be contoured so it is also ideal for making decorative structures and sidewalk decoration. Likewise, color pigments can be added to the concrete to give it a more appealing look.
“You could have this concrete surrounding your buildings and color it to match the façade of your home,” Rodriguez shared. “Not only would you be making sure that the area is safe from slipping hazards, you can adjust its color to your taste or to achieve a specific aesthetical effect.”
Cemex Pervia, the international counterpart of Aquacrete, has been used for US and UK roads. In the Philippines, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has expressed interest in Aquacrete and is willing to do a pilot project to see how the technology can be maximized in public works.
DPWH already accredited a Cemex product, the concrete additive Promptis, and certified it as a “concrete accelerating admixture in public road projects” because it can shorten the time for making newly-built pavements cured and ready for traffic use from the usual three days to only one day or even less than 24 hours.