Haulage operators can look forward to better road conditions with the development of a new self-repairing asphalt, which could help solve the UK’s pothole problem, estimated to cost £143.5m a year.

The self healing asphalt, which can mend its own cracks without requiring any maintenace or human intervention, has been developed by a team of scientists from King’s College London and Swansea University, working in collaboration with scientists in Chile. 

To make the asphalt self-healing, the team incorporated tiny porous materials known as spores, which are smaller than a strand of hair and made from plants, into the bitumen.

The spores are filled with recycled oils and when the road surface is compressed by passing vehicles, the spores are squeezed and release the recycled oils into any nearby cracks, reversing the cracking process. 

In laboratory experiments, this advanced asphalt material was shown to completely heal a microcrack on its surface in less than an hour. 

Potholes are a substantial issue in the UK, where an estimated £16.3bn is needed to bring roads up to scratch, according to the latest annual local authority road maintenance survey.

 Dr Francisco Martin-Martinez, an expert in computational chemistry at King’s College London, said: “In our research, we want to mimic the healing properties observed in nature. For example, when a tree or animal is cut, their wounds naturally heal over time, using their own biology.

“Creating asphalt that can heal itself will increase the durability of roads and reduce the need for people to fill in potholes. 

“We are also using sustainable materials in our new asphalt, including biomass waste. This will reduce our dependence on petroleum and natural resources.

“Biomass waste is available locally and everywhere, and it is cheap.

“Producing infrastructure materials from local resources like waste reduces the dependence on petroleum availability, which helps those areas of the world that have limited access to petroleum-based asphalt.” 

Dr Jose Norambuena-Contreras, an expert in self-healing asphalt at Swansea University, said: “In our interdisciplinary study, we are bringing together experts in civil engineering, chemistry, and computer science to investigate the self-healing properties of a modified bitumen.

“By combining this knowledge with the state-of-the-art AI tools of Google Cloud, we aimed to enhance our understanding of bitumen’s healing capabilities through a bottom-up molecular design approach. 

“We are proud to be advancing the development of self-healing asphalt using biomass waste and artificial intelligence.

“This approach positions our research at the forefront of sustainable infrastructure innovation, contributing to the development of net-zero roads with enhanced durability.”

National Highways welcomed the development this week as a technology that will allow improvements and maintenance to be delivered more quickly and lessen disruption on the UK’s roads.

The team said the innovation is still in development and yet to be published, adding that it has “enormous potential to improve infrastructure and advance sustainability around the world”, since a substantial portion of carbon emissions from roads is linked to asphalt production.