ABSTRACT
It might seem that urbanization is outside the purview of a possible direct influence on the structural design of roads, but it really matters since changing forms of life also means more, both different and new, claims to the use of roads, which in turn calls for changing regulations of the structural design of roads.
Traditionally, electricity, water, fiber, sewage, and heating pipes are buried into the ground. This leads to increased maintenance work and increased maintenance costs for the companies that manage the networks. Therefore, new technologies in roads design have been adopted in Sweden to keep pace with the population growth, urban expansion, and its burden on the infrastructure. In this chapter it will be shown how electrical, optical, water, sewage, waste suction and district heating systems can be placed in a unified place, namely the infraculvert, and how the construction of an infraculverts system can affect the structural design of roads and streets. This chapter shed also lights on the predicted reduction in maintenance and operation costs of the adopted infraculvert technologies. Recommendations for road testbeds that meet the challenge of future urbanization have been illustrated in this chapter as well.
