I just read that concrete can now be made to heal its own cracks with bacteria.

I was looking up some new building materials online last week and found a research paper from a university in the Netherlands. It said they mix special bacteria into the concrete mix when it's wet. These bacteria stay dormant for years. When a crack forms and lets water in, the bacteria wake up and start making limestone, which fills the crack. The paper said it can seal cracks up to 0.8 millimeters wide. I always thought concrete was just a static material once it set, but this changes everything. It could make bridges and foundations last way longer without as much repair work. Has anyone here actually seen this used on a real job site yet?

3 comments

3 Comments

xenas161mo ago

What happens to the bacteria when the concrete is finally torn down or recycled? Do we just end up with a bunch of extra limestone powder in the demolition dust, or could that cause other problems?

martinez.river1mo ago

Wondered the same thing when I read about that self-healing concrete. Feels like we're just kicking the problem down the road for future people to deal with. All that extra fine powder in demo dust can't be great to breathe in, lol.

rowan_bailey1mo ago

Oh man, @xenas16 is asking the real questions here. We're basically just giving the concrete a cold so it can sneeze out repair dust later. Future demo crews will need hazmat suits just to take down a sidewalk, which is a hilarious image. Just another brilliant solution that solves one thing but makes the cleanup ten times worse. Classic human move, really.