Engineers from both the private and public sectors were introduced to the new road building technology called Foamed Bitumen at a road rehabilitation seminar at Amaryllis Hotel recently.
"The objectives of the Foamed Bitumen stabilisation are its past conventional overlay, its economical efficiency, its long life.
"It is designed for traffic growth. It is a fast process, it accommodates traffic and it can be recycled," said Mike Marshall, marketing specialist from the Wirtgen Group responsible for the technology.
Foamed Bitumen is a process that mixes small amounts of water to hot bitumen which is used for standard hot mix asphalt road construction applications. The water evaporates and the bitumen forms a foam, expanding rapidly from its original volume.
The technology has been used in countries like France, England, and the United States.
"It will make a tremendous difference to the quality of the roads and its durability,"
said chairman of C.O. Williams Construction, Sir Charles Williams.
"I am delighted that the present minister and Cabinet has accepted the need for the change," he said at the seminar.
Minister of Public Works Gline Clarke was also excited.
"All Barbadians will agree that we have a lot of roads that need repairing. We cannot continue to spend $100 000 per week on hot mix and then the roads are still in the state they are in. We have to do better than that," he said.