LAND LOCK Natural Paving

Founded in 2008, in Chicago, IL, LANDLOCK® Natural Paving, Inc has set out to solve the world's infrastructure needs, both in road building and dust suppression. Our reach is global, and we're proud to be the industry leader in our field. Unpaved and poorly paved roads have been identified as infrastructure barriers to profitable development: by individual nations, businesses, city planners and supranational organizations (the World Bank and the United Nations) alike. The United States alone has over 1.5 million miles of unpaved roadways, leading to transportation inefficiency, destructive airborne pollution and unsafe transportation. Asphalt, as a primary paving solution, has increasingly proven expensive and environmentally irresponsible because of its reliance on crude oil, poor durability, need for maintenance and pollution. To respond to this need for a reliable, cost-effective and durable paving solution, LANDLOCK® has emerged as a respected, reliable international distributor of a patented paving technology that is among the most cost-effective, durable, strong, sustainable and easy to build. Most of all, it is superior to asphalt: less expensive, more durable, easier to install and more sustainable. Unpaved roads, including graded and drained roadways made of local natural soils, present two main problems. Unpaved roads are unstable and weak, lacking consistency and the mechanical properties necessary for reliable, safe transportation. They lack, for one, vital load-bearing capacity: sand, when dry, loses cohesion and thus also fails to stand solid under loads. Clays, on the other hand, are capable of bearing heavy loads; but this decreases with their poor water absorption properties, leading to surface failure and expensive repairs. Ultimately the strength of unpaved roads fluctuates with weather conditions such as freeze-thaw variations, dry-out shrinkage and wetting/swelling. Finally, unpaved roads generate dust: dangerous because the airborne particles degrade agricultural produce, contribute to human respiratory problems, increase wear and tear on vehicles, decrease driver visibility and result in a higher rate of expensive road deterioration. Alternatively, because most native soils require stabilization to construct roads, materials (such as aggregates) are often added to impart mechanical strength. Chemical stabilizers are often added to decrease water absorption and hold the soil together. It proves difficult to find the right materials to lend the optimal strength and resistance to erosion and swelling required. Calcium chloride, for one, is used for dust control and soil stabilization, but is limited by its narrow application range. Others often neglect the need for strong long-term paving; still others use sulfuric acids in their product that are harmful to fish, wildlife and forests when that product leaches in the local waterways. The option of asphalt paved roads, though effective dust retardants, presents what is perhaps an even more extensive and expensive range of problems. Asphalt paving costs have increased 97% during the past five years (the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics). In that period of time, oil prices have increased 350%, showing how asphalt fluctuates with these increases in crude prices. Aside from its intrinsic reliance upon the price of oil, asphalt is expensive to excavate, produce, transport and lay because of the combined costs of labor, machinery, transportation fuel and disposal. Environmentally, asphalt incurs a high cost because of the toxic footprint of the fuel-inefficient trucks that must drive back and forth to the plant; and because of the petroleum in asphalt that leaches into the groundwater and, when hot, pollutes the air, proving toxic for the workers laying the asphalt. Finally, the added cost of maintenance comes into play when inevitable erosion and potholes arise with time and changing climate patterns, necessitating frequent repeats to the whole expensive process. The need therefore exists for a strong, durable, cost-effective, environmentally-friendly chemical composition that can be used as a material conditioner and stabilizer with predictable and high-performing results. Ideally, this product would be less expensive and less prone to erosion than the traditional asphalt alternative to unpaved roads. It would be versatile and consistent. To respond to this wide absence in the international market at a time when it is most in need, LANDLOCK® has been developed as an inexpensive, environmentally-friendly, non-toxic and water-soluble chemical composition that treats, conditions and stabilizes the local soil to render it the idyllic paved road surface for a wide range of applications. The product, through a carefully engineered, quick and easy-to-manage process of application, effectively makes the local soil rigid and compact: strengthening it and providing for water shedding on the material surface.