Patching Potholes With Eco-Friendly “Goo”

Potholes are not only disruptive to a smooth ride; they can also cause serious damage to your car like bent rims, busted hubcaps and flat tires. In fact, a State Farm Insurance study found vehicle repairs from damage caused by a pothole can cost drivers $300-$700 on average per year.

But repairing the potholes is no easy task. Typically workers cover them with a temporary “cold patch” made of stone and tar. It’s expensive, time consuming and dangerous work.

“This issue with the cold patch is...it’s carcinogenic, it’s toxic,” said Mayank Saksena, a biomedical engineering student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Engineering students from Case Western Reserve University created a better solution.

This “goo” is made of an eco-friendly, non-toxic, material that acts like a liquid until something hits it, under a large impact, it solidifies instantly.

To test the product, the team puts the “goo” in a bag in a pothole. When a car drives over it…the liquid instantly hardens – so your tires don’t drop in the hole.

“So when they’re approaching the bag, it is a liquid. When they hit the bag, it’s still a liquid, but it’s acting like a solid,” said Nicholas Barron, a physics student at Case Western University.

The material is designed to resist temperature swings – so it could last the entire winter. Once the temperature warms up, workers can re-pave the road. And the fix is so easy than just about anyone can patch a pothole.

“It could be a road worker. It could be any other city worker. They see a pothole. They can stop, take a bag out of their trunk, dump it in and leave within less than two minutes,” Saksena said.

The students hope their invention will make roads safer and prevent unnecessary tire and vehicle damage.

“We envision a whole new outlook on temporary road repair, where response times are cut in half at least and the average repair time is cut by four times,” said Barron.

The exact ingredients in the “goo” are under wraps right now – because a patent is pending. The students say the next step is to perform larger scale studies with hundreds or thousands of bags to see how they hold up on busy roads.

Get Inside the Science:

Pothole Patch Invention a Winner for CWRU Students: Road Rant (video)

Mayank Saksena , Case Western Reserve University