Want to know what a long-lasting road looks like? According to the Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA), long-lasting roads look a lot like 94% of all American roads - super smooth and covered in the quiet resiliency of asphalt.

In its trademark black, asphalt is the sticky glue that binds together the aggregate materials used in our nation's roadways. Whether it's obtained naturally from asphalt lakes (hello school field trip!) or gleaned from the residue of petroleum distillation, asphalt is unmatched in sustainability. More than 100 million tons of asphalt are recycled and reused each year - making it the most recycled product in America.

Asphalt pavements are durable and flexible – meaning they can support heavy loads without sustaining serious damage – and are designed to accommodate various traffic and soil conditions and material specifications. Without curing time, they are built quicker and more efficiently that their concrete counterparts. And because asphalt only requires periodic maintenance, it limits traffic disruptions while extending the lifetime of roadways.

Since 2001, the APA has celebrated long-lasting asphalt pavement roadways in the annual Perpetual Pavement Awards. These awards recognize state departments of transportation and local agency road owners who achieved resiliency and long-term durability of their roadways through the successful application and maintenance of asphalt surfacing. Award winners are well-performing asphalt pavements over 35 years old with proven high-quality structural design, average resurfacing intervals of no less than 13 years and no structural failures. They demonstrate characteristics indicative of long-life, Perpetual Pavement design excellence, quality in construction and value to taxpayers. The APA has honored 144 pavements in 31 states and one Canadian province with this award.

It’s no wonder these long-lasting roadways are recognized each year – they are extremely beneficial to motorists. Research shows that smooth pavements reduce traffic congestion, prevent accidents and improve vehicle fuel economy by reducing rolling resistance between the tire and pavement. You may hate the smell when crews lay out new asphalt, but you will love the financial benefits of smoother roads:

• Fuel economy – good for your wallet and the environment. Engineers are always looking for opportunities to increase fuel efficiency in car manufacturing – and the roads they travel aid in this effort. By reducing friction along smoother surfaces, asphalt reduces fuel consumption by 4-10%. Since an astounding 253 million vehicles travel the country’s four million miles of roads – and they’re not all fuel-efficient electric cars– any decrease in fuel consumption adds up fast, and passes the emissions savings on to mother earth.
• Reduced wear and tear to your sweet ride. Smoother pavements reduce vehicle operating costs and driver fatigue by minimizing tire bounce and load impacts – those uncomfortable ride conditions caused by potholes, uneven surfaces and loose debris that cause an estimated $65 billion in annual vehicle operating costs. The visual contrast between asphalt and road markings gets an honorable mention here too. Better visual distinction helps prevent driver errors that could result in major collisions.
• The glorious sound of silence. Noise barriers are expensive and unsightly – and they don’t muffle everything. Asphalt provides an extra layer of protection against noise pollution by preventing it at the source. Smooth asphalt roads prevent reverberations from tire-pavement interface. By eliminating this major contributor to traffic-related noise, many agencies avoid building noise barriers altogether.
• Neither wet nor wild for added safety. Because it’s porous, asphalt allows water to drain and keeps it from sitting on the surface and causing splash back – good news for you when the water is pouring off the car in front of you and you can’t see anything in your path. And because black asphalt retains heat from the sun, it melts snow and ice quicker in wintry conditions. Since weather is a major contributor to accidents, minimizing these risks via roadway composition is a major boost to safety performance.
• Keeps going and going. With tires rolling along the pavement instead of bouncing on bumps and divots, smooth roads last longer than their textured counterparts – because all that bouncing accelerates the rate of road deterioration. In fact, just a 25% boost in pavement smoothness can yield a 10% increase in pavement longevity. Consider those smooth returns: longer-lasting pavement means less maintenance costs and less wasted time stuck in reconstruction traffic. Cha-ching!

For new roads, Perpetual Pavement makes a good thing better

By the way – “Perpetual Pavement” isn’t just a catchy title for the APA’s annual awards – it’s a proven, three-layer design and construction concept that best harnesses the strength and durability of asphalt to deliver better, smoother, longer-lasting roads. First articulated in 2000, Perpetual Pavement design continues to demonstrate extended durability in high-traffic highway applications – and even airport runways, parking lots and racetracks.

So how does it work? The sturdy foundation of the Perpetual Pavement is comprised of two distinct layers of asphalt: (1) a foundational flexible layer that resists tensile strain caused by traffic and prevents cracks from forming at the base and (2) an intermediate layer below the trafficked surface. Atop this sturdy foundation, a layer of rut-resistant asphalt mix completes the safe, smooth and long-lasting road. It’s an approach that expedites initial construction and creates a road that – because of its multi-layered structural foundation – never needs to be fully replaced. Routine surface maintenance involves milling the top layer of asphalt for recycling every 15-20 years and replacing it with a new, smooth asphalt overlay. Completed in off-peak hours with quick curing times, these periodic overlays improve ride quality and fuel consumption while reducing long-term maintenance needs and preventing prolonged disruption to traffic.

Independent researchers have evaluated semi-rigid Perpetual Pavements for operational performance and cost effectiveness for the past 20 years. Though implementing Perpetual Pavement does not significantly increase initial construction costs, it is overwhelming found to reduce lifecycle maintenance costs below industry averages and deliver strong returns for owners over longer periods of time. In fact, the correct application of the Perpetual Pavement concept produces asphalt roads that resist structural fatigue distress for at least 50 years – much longer than the anticipated design life for roads delivered via other methods and materials.

As demonstrated by the APA Perpetual Pavement Award winners, asphalt pavements are capitalizing on the supportive geometry of layered foundations, with each layer playing a critical role in handling traffic loads. No matter their age, these smooth expanses of open road look and perform like they’re brand new – delivering long-term value, today.

For existing roads, stopping deterioration before it starts is key

Pavement preservation offers another opportunity to strengthen roads and minimize costly and disruptive road reconstruction projects. For existing roads that do not exhibit structural damage, pavement preservation proactively slows the rate of roadway deterioration with a series of low-cost preventative treatments. Independently, and collectively, these treatments work to maintain or extend a pavement's effective service life.

But when a road shows evidence of structural damage – like many of ours do – it’s already too late. Once roads experience structural damage, they have missed the window of opportunity for preventative treatment and are already on their way to failure and eventual replacement. As the experts say, you snooze (on preventing catastrophic roadway failures), you lose. Big time.

Extending the service life of original pavement results in one less road to reconstruct in the vast network of failing roadways. By rehabilitating pavement and reducing the rate of deterioration, DOTs can make highway maintenance more cost effective – and safer – overall.

But to realize the full value of pavement preservation, agencies need to commit to the preservation philosophy wholeheartedly. It doesn’t work as a bandage that can magically fix a few stretches of roadway at a time and make them last longer. An effective pavement preservation program should be a guiding force for financial planning.

Dwindling budgets encourage innovation

Infrastructure budgets aren’t getting any bigger – particularly in today’s unpredictable economic environment. With uncertain funding sources, states are feeling even more pressure to find new, less expensive, longer-lasting products and procedures to build resilient infrastructure resources.

Groups like TRIP and AASHTO are helping educate lawmakers and on the benefits of incorporating longer-lasting materials and methods into construction programs through comprehensive research studies and training programs. Likewise, the APA reduces barriers to delivering long-lasting asphalt roads by offering two free versions of its software for the design and analysis of Perpetual Pavements. But until we factor in the entire lifecycle cost of a road into the budget, engineers and contractors will continue to pursue quick wins and cheap alternatives to resiliency.

The bottom line: road deterioration is increasing financial demands on highway agencies, and they can’t keep up with the volume of repairs. We need to change the industry philosophy from reactive to proactive. Roadways that have deteriorated beyond their safe and effective service life are liabilities – and liabilities aren’t exactly well known for being cheap. The work required to repair or replace them is more expensive than regular maintenance. They also cause widespread traffic disruptions that cause rippling effects throughout the economy.

Ultimately, with innovative, preventative methods and preservation, we can increase mobility, reduce congestion and reap the social, economic and environmental benefits of smooth, longer-lasting pavements.

It doesn't cost more to build better

The original Interstate Highway System cost over $129 billion to construct. Preserving it is an investment into the country’s economic stability, and we all know that investment is a long game. With an infrastructure grade hovering at a D+ for the nation’s roadways, we have passed the point of managing the rate of deterioration and need to focus on preventative solutions that factor lifetime maintenance into the total cost of our infrastructure.

There’s a common misconception that to build better, we have to spend more money up front – but with transportation infrastructure, that’s really not the case. Resilient materials like geogrids, preventative pavement treatments and the undeniable benefits of Perpetual Pavement don’t cost significantly more to implement up front, but the long-term savings are exponential.

Lawmakers need to convince the public that preventative methods and innovative materials will deliver measurable financial results immediately to allocate more money to innovative methods and materials. And they can show them snazzy PowerPoint presentations about our longest lasting roads as evidence. Asphalt Perpetual Pavement and pavement preservation keeps roads smooth and safe while preventing costly, disruptive road reconstructions and unnecessary impacts to the environment. Building better roads is an investment in the future – and that’s an investment that will continue to pay dividends.