People usually try to avoid broken glass on roadways -- but not at Ecole Technologie Superieure.
The school is working on a $450,000 research project to use broken glass as part of the asphalt mix on roads.
"We're close, we know, we know we are," said Francis Bilodeau.
The ETS technician said the school believes it can come up with a recipe for glassphalt that should hold up to traffic as well as standard asphalt.
"At least as good as without glass..at least as good, and hopefully better. That's our goal," said Bilodeau.
Glassphalt has been around for forty years, and was originally developed as a way to use coloured glass collected by recycling centres.
It's still in use in many parts of the United States, although it rarely gets beyond the pilot project stage because many municipalities find it's too difficult to consistently get the same type and size of glass particles.
Professor Alan Carter said new research, and evaluating old research, should iron out problems.
"The way we actually evaluate, treat the glass, put it in asphalt. We have a lot more knowledge now. We understand why it didn't work, and what we could do and should do to make it work," said Carter.
The SAQ and the city of Montreal are taking part in the project. and councillor Lionel Perez said if it works out, the city would be interested in saving money.
"We're looking for new techniques, new materials, new ways to improve the quality of the roads," said Perez.
"A large part of it is a proper investment of better maintenance of the road but we're also looking for added value products."
The first batch of glassphalt is being tested on a private lot and more test slabs will be placed in Montreal next year and in 2017.
