Fixing the roads, changing America

How much would the solar highway cost? Brusaw calculates an estimated cost -- in great detail -- on his website. Short answer: each mile would cost $4.4 million. Payoff? A cleaner, self-sustaining highway that would eventually pay for itself in energy production and in other ways, he said.

-- How can glass provide enough traction while supporting the weight, wear and tear of a conventional concrete or asphalt highway? Glass, especially when fused together in layers, is stronger than most people think, said Brusaw. He said he's joined forces with top glass researchers at University of Dayton and Penn State who can develop super-strong glass that would offer vehicles the traction they need.

-- Can the solar highway's surface collect enough sunlight when it's filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic? Yes, he says. Even when roadways are filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic, solar collection would be at 50 percent, he estimates.

As for Brusaw, he hopes to win more private and federal support by demonstrating a new prototype smart-road parking lot to be finished in the spring.

His goal would be to partner with a high-profile national chain like McDonald's or Walmart to turn their conventional parking lots into solar-powered, interactive, temperature-controlled spaces where electric-vehicle owners can recharge their cars while they shop or drive across the country.

"The Federal Highway Administration told us they're not going to let us go out on the highway to start this," said Brusaw. "They told us to go into the parking lot first, prove your technology, perfect it and learn your lessons there -- which makes sense."

Electricity generated by the highway could be used to recharge electric vehicles and to power lights and LED warning signs along the road itself.

In fact, Brusaw believes that solar roadways -- if widely accepted -- could eventually generate clean electricity around the world, eliminating the need for fossil fuels and saving the planet from global climate change.

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Goshin said:

I think i posted about this thing 18 months ago, but i can't remember.

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+ SR 18 widening in rural King County - about $24.5 million per mile.
+ US 12 widening south of Tri Cities - about $3.7 million per mile.
+ I-5 widening in Vancouver – about $20.2 million per mile.
+ I-90 truck climbing lanes east of Cle Elum and at Vantage – about $1 million per mile.
+ I-5 HOV lanes from Tukwila to Fife – about $7 million per mile

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Fling said:

seems like keeping it clean might be a problem.

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TooSmoothe said:

I don't feel like reading in to it but could you answer some questions for me:

- Say someone breaks an axle or something and ends trashing a good 150ft section. How much road would have to be replaced?

- I live in MN, we need roads to be plowed a lot. Would we have to design a whole new fleet of plows that don't damage this road?

- How would they stop light reflection?

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{FSC}Godfather said:

isnt this really the type of crazy thinking that we need to start embracing though?

It would be better then doing what we are doing now with roads, especially in the north where you pretty much have to replace roads every other year it seems.

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