Long, bumpy ride to smoother roads nears end for Ottawa's 'Professor of Pavement'

One day in 1982, when AbdEl Halimwas still a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, he stopped to watch a paving crew at worknearhis house.

Fascinated, El Halimstudied the steel cylinder of the asphalt roller as it met the hot, black road surface, leaving a network of fine fissures in its wake.

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It struck El Halim then and there that the key to eradicating potholes was eliminatingthose cracks, which collect water that freezes and expands, heaving and breaking apart the road surface.

El Halimimmediately went to work.

"I believe this is the beginning of the end of potholes," he declared five years later in an interview with CBCNews as he showed off his new invention.

But forEl Halim, now a civil engineering professor at Carleton University,it's beena long, bumpy road to recognition by the industry.

AMIR is born

Back in the 1980s, El Halimhad realized that while most of the technology involved in building and repairing roads had advanced over the years, one key toolhad not.

"When you read the history of asphalt, you realize that everything has changed," El HalimtoldCBC. "But the roller did not change, and the rollers were not designed by a civil engineer, or anyengineer."

'Money is going between the cracks'

7 years ago

Duration 1:04

Carleton University professor Abd El-Halim discovered the key to making potholes extinct 36 years ago. Now, he finally has the chance to put his invention to use again.

His solution was to replace the roller's traditional cylindrical wheel with a rubber belt on a track, similar to a snowmobile.

The belt spreadthe weight of the compacting machine over a larger area,preventing thecracksin the freshly laid asphalt.

He called his machine the asphalt multi-integrated roller, or AMIR also his son's name.

"That shows you how much I loved the roller," El Halimsaid.

Bumps in the road

Shortly after he unveiled AMIR, El Halimtested it with aToronto-based tunnelling equipment company. Later, further research conducted with the help of about$500,000 in funding from the National Research Council(NRC) concluded theprototype was "overall quite successful" and "provided a crack-free surface."

But the testing didn't go perfectly.

On aslope, the belt had a tendency to come off. The early version of AMIRwas also difficult to steer, and at one point the prototype wandered acrossthe centre line of atest road on the NRC campus.

El Halimran out of research money in 2003, a blow the inventor took personally.

"Like in any other field, you always have enemies of new ideas, people interested in not having you succeed in what you are doing," he said.

Interviewed in 2008, having generated little to no commercial interest in his prototype, which was then nearly 20 years old and gathering rust, El Halimexpressed frustration with an industry reluctant to adapt to new ways.

"Why should they change their technology when nobody is forcing them to?" he asked.

A chance meeting

Then in 2010, a chance meeting with a Ministry of Transportation (MTO) engineer and formerstudent rekindled interest in the all-but-forgotten project.

"Nobody [had] linked permeability to the construction techniques in the field," said Frank Pinder, MTO's engineer responsible for pavement contracting in eastern Ontario.

MTO became seriously involved in testing a new prototype of AMIR in 2012. The results, observed over several highway tests, werepromising.

As Pinderpointed out, it makes some sense that the commercial paving industry wasn't interested in eliminating potholes after all, the perennial need to fill them in ensuressubsequent maintenance contracts.

A long time coming

"That's why it's taken such a long time to move it along," Pindersaid.

That's also why it ultimately fell to theMTOto help developAMIRas a way to save taxpayers money.

Last year, theMTOlooked at how much money pavement that lasted just one year longer than average would save the province, and came up with afigure of$50 millionannually.

In fact, the Ministry of Transportation is now in the process of developing water permeability standards that will be specified in new road contracts in the future. That means companies will need to figure out how to lay down crack-free asphalt, and could lead to widespread commercial interest inAMIRafter all.

Tomlinson takes notice

Already, Ottawa construction firm R.W.Tomlinsonhasretrofitted a traditionalasphalt roller by removing its twin steel drums and replacing themwith AMIR-inspired belt rollers, which itdeveloped with El Halim.

We're hopeful that at some point in time, these machines are seen on the road every day.- Russ Perry, R.W. Tomlinson

"Tomlinson sees the value in this," said Russ Perry, the company's vice president of heavy civil engineering.

Tomlinsonhas used the machine on a handful of projects, including resurfacing of a lane of DidsburyRoad in November2017.

There, belt-rolled pavement outperformed the cylinder-rolled surfacein a head-to-head test of water permeability as decision makers from government and industry looked on. El Halim, who had by then earned the nickname "Professor of Pavement,"stood and watched, too, just as he had 36 years earlier.

Proving ground

Perry said Tomlinson is so convinced of AMIR's superioritythat it's kitting out asecond roller, which it plans to use on a 42-kilometrepaving project in the Bancroft, Ont., area later this year.

Tomlinson has invested about $500,000 in the technology so far, andPerry estimates a single, more efficient AMIR roller can replace up to three traditional asphalt rollers.

"We're hopeful that at some point in time, these machines are seen on the road every day," Perry said.

For El Halim, who's now preparing to retire from his job at Carleton, the promise of commercial success has been worth the wait.

"A true researcher always dreams of serving the public by offering good, economic, safe solutions," he said. "If you are afraid of new ideas, due to ignorance, it is very difficult to succeed."