We’ve had a lot of our clients (Government agencies, private industry, to homeowners) ask us what will concrete 2030 and 2050 look like.
My answer is both positive/uplifting and negative/cynical.
My positive answer is: I believe that if we get over our current struggles there will be a lot more IOT and smart concrete applications that will empower our workforce and help them work smarter rather than harder — see our Letter to Elon Musk for more details.
I also believe that new and emerging technologies will help us to create concrete structures faster, stronger and that will last longer.
My cynical side has another approach. Period. My cynical side says 2030 is going to look like 2018 but a lot more expensive and with a lot more failures. Allow me to explain. Right now our civil infrastructure has an ASC the reading somewhere around a D+. By the time we reach 2030 with the ever-increasing population and the demand for more infrastructure our cost to maintain both the infrastructure that we’ve been maintaining and the infrastructure were creating thru 2030 will tap out national resources. We won’t have the money to implement glow-in-the-dark concrete, energy harvesting foundations in remotes locations, self-healing concrete for bridges and hard to go to structures, and on and on.
The point of this article is not to piss on anybody’s Cheerios but to recognize the impetus for adopting new technologies to make concrete that is stronger and last longer so not only can we get out of the business of selling infrastructure but we can see a brighter new future with our concrete technologies, saving the world with all the concrete in it.
Written By: Jon Belkowitz, PhD, PE