Hi. My name is Jean-Francois Corté.

I'm the Secretary-General of

the World Road Association (PIARC) and in charge of the course on Pavement
design at the Ecole des Ponts. This module is devoted to an overview
of the application of bitumen in roads. The first significant uses of
bitumen in road construction date back to the 19th century with the use
of natural asphalt as sidewalks and pavement surfaces in streets in Paris,
in the UK or in the US such as on Pennsylvania Avenue
(Washington DC) in 1876. But the growth in the usage of bitumen
is tightly linked to that of the automobile. The speed allowed by automobiles
soon revealed the inadequacy of the traditional unsurfaced
roads of the 19th century due to : - production of dust, sparking
local residents' negative reactions; - accelerated wear of the pavement
with rejection of grit due to greater sheer forces; - the need for better roughness
for
riding comfort and limitation of mechanical breakdowns. The efficiency of tar
macadam and
coating with bitumen from natural asphalt
in the early days was soon proven. The cost of importing natural asphalt
and the very strong demand growth
in the United States sparked, as soon as 1902, bitumen
production from crude oil distillation. Therefore the use of asphalt pavement
increased : - in the form of thin layers of bituminous concrete or;
-surface treatment such as slurries and surface dressings that grew from the 20s,
particularly in Europe with anionic and later cationic emulsions. First patents for
bituminous hot mixes were issued at the turn of the 20th century. But it was not
until the second half
of the century, with the progress of technology in the manufacture and
placement of hot mixes, and given the considerable increase
in heavy goods vehicle traffic, that bitumenous mixtures were used
to form thick base layers. This solution provided better resistance
to deformation of traditional untreated pavements while reducing the
thickness of the untreated based layers. Most likely,
close to 95% of the "paved" roads in the world have bituminous surfacing. This
success is the result of
the wide variety of applications permitted by the broad spectrum
of bituminous products : - Surface treatments for low volume roads; - Thin or thick
overlays for maintenance
according to pavement condition; - Treated base layers for roads
undergoing a high traffic of heavy vehicles. Applications include : road and
street pavements, but also sidewalks, parking areas, aircraft runways,
or industrial platforms. Bitumen is used in road applications
at all latitudes : - northern and high elevation regions where
temperatures are very cold ; and - tropical or desert climates where
temperatures are very high. This diversity is possible
because there is not "one" bitumen but a whole spectrum of bitumen, resulting from
different processes for refining crude oil, products with
well-defined and consistent classes of properties to meet the
specific needs of different applications and climatic contexts of use, while
accommodating differences
in the composition of crude oils. Over the past 40 years,
physicochemical modification of bitumen, usually by addition or
combination with polymers, has extended the performance
of neat bitumen, including increased resistance to permanent
deformation at high service temperatures, increased ductility, and/or
reduced brittleness at low temperatures. The annual global consumption
of bitumen is currently estimated at around 100 million tons. The major part, 85 to
95%, is
used in road construction. Our societies and economies have become
highly dependent on the availability and reliability of the road transport system.
The modal share of road transport
accounts for 70 to over 80% of inland freight transport (in
ton kilometers) in most countries. It is similar for the movement of
people (in km-passenger). With often congested roads
around large cities, route availability is essential for the
reliability of travel time and deliveries. Road maintenance technologies
which minimize the duration and length of lane disruption
is hence essential. Bituminous techniques are well adapted
to these constraints, often allowing the execution
of road works under traffic, with fast recovery
of traffic on the repaired lane. Road works can be performed at night,
which is now systematically the chosen solution for interventions on the most
trafficked urban expressways. If bitumen ages, mainly by oxidation
of some of the hydrocarbon components, the bituminous material can
be completely reused or recycled in road construction : -by on-site
recycling; or - recycling in a mixing plant. Bitumen allowed the construction of
road
pavements, suited to the automobile, ensuring comfort and safety of driving. The
diversity of products with
manufacturing plants, ensuring consistency of properties in well-defined classes
of performance, makes it possible to adjust to different contexts of use (climates
and traffic intensity). These qualities allied to the flexibility
of maintenance technique, and the recyclable nature of bituminous
materials explain its success throughout the world in road
construction and maintenance. Thanks for your attention.