That is what ingenuity and Gizmag is all about. Seems like it wouldn't go over well in Europe.

This is genius!

Concrete is much better than asphalt, but hard to lay and a nightmare to repair.

Asphalt can be scrapped up and relayed quickly, that is why we in the US use it for almost all our roads.

But this could change that. With this machine laying a concrete paver road could be easier than laying an asphalt road. Repair would no longer be an issue since small crews could replace sections of paver as needed.

These machines could also be a first step. They could automate the process so bricks of differing colors could be loaded into bins and the machine itself could sort them. Very quickly......

I hope this is seen for what it is, a potential revolution in road making.

-Dennis

A good idea, but perhaps not good enough. The issue as I see it is the manual feeding of the bricks. A magazine type continuous feed needs to be developed for this machine. This may require working with a brick supplier to come up with a workable magazine type stack. A continious feed could see a 10x or better increase in speed with far less breakage of bricks that would occur using this "dump in the hopper" approach. Good Inception though.

To Andrew: You see roads like this everywhere in The Netherlands. The inventor is obviously Dutch (as am I) and it is a brilliant idea to spare the backs of the workers, so why would it not go over well? These kinds of roads are easy to maintain. You do not get the usual pot holes and broken bricks are simply replaced. They are also good for the dispersal of rain which both runs off and is absorbed through the sand beneath. The textured surface is good for traction. Do not under-estimate the practical Dutch.

will it lay Yellow Bricks?

This machine is screaming out for someone to invent fan-fold micro-perf bricks, ready to feed out of the box and lay on the road.

Seems brilliant..but;

A single conventional paver can do at least half this work as compared in the article to two operators - so if i am hiring two workers why would I also invest in the capital equipment?

I also notice that the edge bricks still need to be pre-cut. Is there a third worker not pictured?

I wonder if this is the first step toward the holy grail of brick-laying; a mobile brick sheet fabricator and laying machine that cuts the sheets into bricks as they exit the machine or in situ on the road.

I give this an A for idea but a D for value.

I think it is a bit mean to poo-poo an idea of such simplicity and ascetic value - it has great potential and I love it!

""To Andrew: You see roads like this everywhere in The Netherlands. The inventor is obviously Dutch (as am I) and it is a brilliant idea to spare the backs of the workers, so why would it not go over well? These kinds of roads are easy to maintain. You do not get the usual pot holes and broken bricks are simply replaced. They are also good for the dispersal of rain which both runs off and is absorbed through the sand beneath. The textured surface is good for traction. Do not under-estimate the practical Dutch.

comment Pieter - November 15, 2010 @ 10:11 pm PST

Beste Pieter,

Having lived in The Netherlands for 10 years and still spending about 10 days per month there for my employer for the last 5 and 1/2. I am going to have to agree with you about the maintenance issues, relaying of cables, servicing sewer lines etc. These pavers make it very easy. However, I can not agree with you about traction. I've been on icy conditions on the pavers and on icy conditions on asphalt. Give me rough surface asphalt over the pavers in cold weather and I'm a happy man. I've slid around on those pavers and with the smallest amount of frost they become slippery.

I heb er meer dan 10 jaar in Nederland gewoond. En voor het laatste vijf en een half jaar ga ik heen en weer slingeren voor ongeveer 10 dagen per maand in Nederland. Ik ben er niet met je eens over die "Klinkers" die zijn lang niet zo goed in het sneeuw en ice. Verder zijn ze well heel goed. Excuses voor mijn Neder-Engels.

Nufsed

I wonder why there isn't a hopper to feed sand into a screed as a first step before the chute. Maybe it needs to be compacted first. I would load the bricks as palletized loads rather than knocking them over, then scooping, then dumping. BUT, very cool, very simple, I like it!

Dutch brick paver great idea. As a road bicyclist, I would question how smooth the surface is, though.

A smaller, garden sized paver 1 to 2 meters wide could be a really good investment for a landscaping company.

I wonder if you threw enough hot dough and melted cheese into the hopper, you could lay out the world's largest pizza.

You gotta love human creativity. Thanks Gizmag.

Where I live their is a small area downtown, a very old area, where their is a few blocks of cobblestone...its bumpy as hell. I guess this "tech" is good for parks and stuff, but not roads people drive on.

brilliant idea from which others will add their slant on pavers

This a great invention. i can only imagine at higher speeds these pavers eat up tires.

and to dennis concrete slab highways last 40years. Asphalt last 20 but costs half i dont think pavers can be use for highway speeds.

Fantastisch idee ! As an occupation health physician I can only applaud the benefits for the bricklayer community !!!

Too bad the machine only lays brick roads : bricks are too noisy and less bicycle-friendly, although perfect for driveways and parkways. My neighbourhood had the choice (the city council had suggested bricks) but opted for asphalt instead, even for 30 Km/h traffic.

I've been dreaming of an automatic asphalt-repairing machine for years... cleaning up an entire lane of damaged asphalt, grinding up the top layer, crunching and heating and re-mixing the rubble with fresh bitumen to the desired quality, and re-depositing, rollering and painting it all in one swoop during a nighly pass, without all the hassle of deviations for road works. Any chance such a commodity is in the works ?

Belgian's winter-damaged and traffic-jam-clogged highways and roads would be your first customers !

" HEY DOROTHY! STOP TAILGAITIN'. "

Reconstitution of existing asphalt roadways -

http://angelobenedetti.com/how.html

This reminds me of the documentary about Hitler's Autobahn, where an automated, standardized system was used to swiftly build roads like never before.

Hello All,

How about recycled or fresh ASPHALT Bricks, and then go over the layed Asphalt bricks again with a type of sealer Grout to seal, stabilize the Asphalt Bricks to keep them from shifting ! So now you have your rough desirable surface, and this sealer might help it stand up to heavy trucks, traffic and also keep freezing water - ice from between the Bricks, less concern of expansion - contraction breaking up the road during winter seasons. Snowplows shouldn't do as much damage either. thanks Mike

I can see how it works for perfectly straight constant width paving.

But how would it work for winding/curved and/or variable width paving???

Wonderful Innovation Method.

Dr.a.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India

Wait till the Union sees this.

Has anyone thought, you can make your own machine?: a large sheet of 1" thick plywood, the width of your path X say 4ft, set on an angled frame made with 2" X 2" and set on rollers so you can pull it along, or tow with a vehicle. The weight of the bricks may actually assist in the movement, as they slide down the slope.

I like the comment from Dr. A (Mick) Jagadeesh

I see that it is being used in Europe, I am just surprised. I don't know about the Dutch, but in England (if you consider that Europe) they like to stick to doing things the tried and true way, it seems. I'm excited to see that there was enough interest to get it made, and I hope to see how it evolves - if it needs to at all that is.

Nice idea but I can't see how the bricks get into that hopper in the first place - is there a conveyor bringing them from the other (inlet) side of the machine?

Can see it now: computer controlled automatic version and adverts claiming "Write your loved one a message on a brick road for 100$" :-))

@graham.corley: I guess the operators just feed in bricks to suit what's being paved...

@agulesin - when I said "I can't see how the bricks get into that hopper" I hadn't seen the video as our company blocks streaming media. Sorry to appear thicker than I am!!

The small spots around trees and stuff like that would still have to be done by hand. However, the large runs, this would save a lot of time. With lower and lower rates all the time it would never pay. That would be it downfall.

Gerard.