Futuristic automatically de-icing road announced in France

BELIEVE it or not, roads as we know them have been around since around 4,000 B.C. Those first paved tracks maybe a million miles from the blacktop we know today, but it does seem like road building hasn’t really changed much in the last 50 years, does it?

That could be about to change, as a Eurovia announces a new type of tech that allows a road to heat itself in winter to clear snow and ice.

The road is built around the fairly basic principle of a heat exchanger and is not dissimilar to the pipes you find in under-floor heating. A fluid is passed through the pipes and depending on the road’s ambient temperature energy can either be taken from or sent to the roads surface layer.

Because of the natural propensity for roads to absorb heat – being black and facing directly upwards – the system can also take in heat during the summer, store it and then release it in the winter. This could either be to help clear obstructions like ice or snow, or the energy could be diverted into nearby homes or buildings.

And it’s not just some blue-sky idea on PowerPoint presentation, Euvoria has actually already built an actual working version of the new tech. The 120m stretch of road opened in Égletons, France. The region has hot and humid summers yet cold and sometimes snowy winters. This seasonal change made it the perfect location to try the road out and it didn’t disappoint. With some flurries of snow over the festive season, the automated road managed to clear snow and ice before it reached such a level that vehicles would have been inhibited.

Would a self-heating road that banished ice keep you riding all winter?