PSA: That Roman concrete recipe actually has a modern use

So I was watching this random YouTube doc about Roman concrete last week, and it blew my mind how they used volcanic ash and seawater to make stuff that lasts 2,000 years. The guy said modern concrete only holds up maybe 50 years in the same conditions. I looked it up and found out scientists at MIT actually cracked the secret in 2023 - it's the quicklime mixing process that makes it self-healing. I tried explaining this to my buddy at work and he just stared at me like I was crazy. But honestly, why aren't we using this for coastal buildings or bridges? Has anyone else dug into this and found out if they're actually using it anywhere now?

2 comments

2 Comments

bettym8914d ago

Did you check if they're doing any pilot projects with it yet? I looked into this a few months back and found a group in Japan actually testing it on some seawalls, said it's holding up way better than the regular stuff.

mitchell.dakota14d ago

Friend of mine works for a marine engineering company, and they got a sample from some Japanese supplier last fall. They slapped it on a small test patch of a breakwater down in Florida. He said after six months it still looked brand new while the concrete next to it was already getting that green slime and little cracks. The boss was pretty excited about it, apparently talking about scaling it up for a whole marina project. But then the supplier went quiet on pricing so they shelved it for now.