THE Minister of Infrastructure Development says the road from Central Market to Fishing Village will be covered with a special tarseal coat called asphalt – a bitumen with a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum.

Speaking in Parliament last week, Hon Jimmy Lusibaea said the decision was made to make sure the new road has long term benefits and more sustainable in terms of condition.

He explained that Asphalt road surfaces offer many benefits, including cost efficiency, reduction in noise pollution and comfort.

Hon Lusibaea also told parliament that most roads in Honiara and also in other provincial urban centres are covered with chipseal due to lack of proper machineries.

He said there is no contractor in Solomon Islands that owns an Asphalt Machine and that foreign contractors will be invited to seal the Central Market to Fishing village road.

Chip Sealing and Asphalt sealing are two methods contractors use when sealing new roads or repairing work.

According to studies, the Asphalt Sealing method is more beneficial and long lasting compared to Chip Sealing method.

Studies found that using asphalt materials in road construction and maintenance can improve the benefits for all road users and the environment.

The advantages of asphalt simply add up to superior value as Asphalt is safe, smooth and durable and also can be built to last indefinitely.

Asphalt is a flexible pavement built in multiple layers with a continuous flow of material moving through the asphalt paver.

Asphalt is also fast to construct and maintain and asphalt contractors know how to “get in and get out” of construction zones.

Asphalt is the green pavement: It is up to 100 percent reusable and recyclable.

Furthermore its flexibility and new technologies are making asphalt the only sustainable pavement choice.

Repetitive construction joints, noisy surface texture, and blow ups are eliminated by this method of construction.

Asphalt runways and taxiways mean safer landings and take offs, because such surfaces are smoother and easier to maintain.

On the other hand, Chip seals are constructed by evenly distributing a thin base of hot bitumen and bitumen Emulsion onto an existing pavement and then embedding finely graded aggregate into it.

The aggregate is evenly distributed over the chip seal, and then rolled into an even surface.

Two functions are served by the chip seal, firstly to seal surface of the road then to provide a wear surface with the chippings (Aggregate).

Aggregate or Chippings are broad terms for coarse particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete.

Aggregates are a component of composite materials such as concrete and asphaltic concrete; the aggregate serves as reinforcement to add strength to the overall composite material.

For chip sealing the aggregate provides the wear surface it can be coated with a bonding agent to aid adhesion.

The introduction of polymer-modified (Plastics) in bitumen and emulsion binder has increased the chip seal’s ability to prevent crack reflection and improve stone retention by improving the properties of the bitumen binder.