Sound-, light-, and air-pollution-absorbing highway barrier system
In the United States there are over 46,800 miles (75,317 kilometers) of highways with sound-barrier walls being erected daily to mitigate the negative impacts of highway systems on adjacent neighborhoods. The increasing prominence of this addition to the highway infrastructure necessitates a more appealing design solution to highway-generated air, sound, and light pollution.
In addition to mitigating sound and light pollution, the Superabsorber system also absorbs airborne pollutants. (Transportation systems alone produce 1.4 billion tons of airborne pollution annually.) Designed by Douglas Hecker and Martha Skinner of Clemson-based fieldoffice, this innovative system has the potential to significantly reduce airborne pollution with the application of photocatalytic cement products that have been demonstrated to reduce air pollution in urban areas by 50 percent when covering just 15 percent of urban surfaces. The inclusion of this surface application on future concrete-barrier systems will produce a significant increase in absorption of air pollution in urban areas.
Contact: fieldoffice, Clemson, SC, USA.
For more information, see Transmaterial 2: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine our Physical Environment
