Road
pavements are designed to withstand road traffic and weathering actions while
ensuring comfortable and safe riding conditions as well as low costs and damage
to the environment. When a road pavement has additional abilities or reacts to
an external stimulus, it is considered to be smart and multifunctional.
Examples of such abilities that have been investigated in asphalt mixtures are
self-sensing, deicing/anti-icing, and self-healing abilities. Typically, these
abilities are achieved by directly adding functional fillers, such as metal
fiber, carbon fiber, carbon black, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, into asphalt
binder and then binding it with aggregates and filler. The application of conductive asphalt mixtures
can improve the safety and lifespan of the pavement, as well as reduce
maintenance costs during the service. In this context, they can contribute to
materializing the transition to a novel model known as “Smart, Multifunctional,
and Sustainable pavement” that is environmentally friendly, sustainable, and
inclusive. This model is a very important path toward economic and employment
recovery, a vision to which many countries are strongly committed.