Feature Stories

Sustainable Solution for Road Construction in Malaysia

Communities    29 October 2021


Sustainable development requires transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces. This includes using more sustainable building products and production processes to create low-carbon, energy-efficient buildings throughout their entire lifecycles. In line with United Nations SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities as well as SDG 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, YTL Cement is committed to accelerate the transition to lower emissions by delivering more sustainable building materials for greener construction.

With the advancement of cement and concrete technology, using concrete for road pavement provides numerous benefits such as higher durability and lower maintenance compared to asphalt. In the past, flexible asphalt pavements have been more common than concrete ones, essentially due to the lower cost of initial construction and the availability of the raw materials such as bitumen, a by-product of large-scale oil refining. However, times are changing and it is becoming apparent that using concrete for road pavements has many advantages based on its life-cycle analysis, which takes into account environmental, social and economic benefits as well as the costs of use and maintenance.


Environment
  • Reduce CO2 emissions as the stiffness of concrete pavement reduces the rolling resistance of vehicles
  • Reduce urban heat island effect and demand of street lighting as concrete road has higher albedo which reflects a higher proportion of solar radiation than darker materials such as asphalt
  • Reduce the disposal of materials
  • Reduce the use of imported materials
Social
  • Longer design life and less maintenance, hence less disturbance to traffic flow
Economic
  • Lower construction costs by improving existing soil material and recycling methods
  • Lower maintenance costs as concrete pavement lasts longer than flexible pavement

In 2015, YTL Cement Road Infrastructure Development team was established (previously under Lafarge Malaysia) with the objective of introducing new technology and products for concrete road construction in Malaysia and aligned with the Ministry of Works’ long-term strategy to construct 5% of new roads using cement and concrete solutions.