Self-healing roads could end plague of potholes

Potholes are the £14.4 billion problem blighting Britain’s roads and leaving behind many a frustrated motorist.

Now engineers believe “self-healing” roads may be the solution. Research suggests that asphalt roads could be made far more durable by adding a new ingredient: recycled cooking oil.

Potholes typically appear when water penetrates cracks in the asphalt over the winter. When the water freezes, it expands, making the cracks larger and forming fresh ones. When the broken-up material is washed away, a pothole is left behind.

The research, which included input from Google and King’s College London, involved creating a sophisticated computer model of how this process unfolds at a molecular level. In particular, the team looked at how bitumen — the sticky black material used to bind