Dr Haopeng Wang - University of Liverpool

The challenge

Traditional road construction and maintenance are slow, highly disruptive, and carbon intensive. On-site work causes prolonged traffic congestion, safety risks, and major economic losses, while conventional materials and processes generate substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Existing infrastructure is often inflexible, making it difficult to adapt to climate impacts, growing urban demands, or emerging technologies such as connected and autonomous vehicles. 

The research

Through his Research Fellowship, Dr Haopeng Wang is tackling these interconnected problems by developing prefabricated rollable pavement systems for modular road construction, with reversible bonding technology as the central innovation. 

The opportunities for change are substantial: factory-controlled production enables consistent quality and the use of low-carbon, circular materials; rapid unrolling and assembly slash construction times and minimise road closures; modular design allows easy section replacement, reconfiguration, and future upgrades (including smart sensors); and whole-life environmental impacts are significantly reduced. This approach has the potential to accelerate the UK’s net-zero goals, improve construction productivity, enhance network resilience, and deliver safer, more adaptable infrastructure.

Through his Research Fellowship, Dr Haopeng Wang is tackling these interconnected problems by developing prefabricated rollable pavement systems for modular road construction, with reversible bonding technology as the central innovation. The opportunities for change are substantial: factory-controlled production enables consistent quality and the use of low-carbon, circular materials; rapid unrolling and assembly slash construction times and minimise road closures; modular design allows easy section replacement, reconfiguration, and future upgrades (including smart sensors); and whole-life environmental impacts are significantly reduced. This approach has the potential to accelerate the UK’s net-zero goals, improve construction productivity, enhance network resilience, and deliver safer, more adaptable infrastructure. 

The systems Dr Wang is developing will combine the speed of rollable deployment with the structural integrity and adaptability of modular prefabricated elements. The reversible bonding technology creates strong, load-transferring connections between modules during service life while enabling clean, damage-free debonding for rapid removal, repair, reconfiguration, or recycling at the end of life. This breakthrough supports genuine circularity and futureproofing of infrastructure. The research includes optimising sustainable materials compatible with the bonding system, validating performance under UK traffic and environmental conditions through testing and modelling, and assessing whole-life environmental and economic benefits. The aim is to deliver proven prototypes, design guidelines, and a clear pathway to industry adoption that will transform road construction into a faster, lower-carbon, and more adaptable process. 

The researcher

Dr Wang is a Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Liverpool, specialising in sustainable pavement materials and modular road infrastructure systems. He leads competitively funded research projects focused on decarbonising transport infrastructure, including bio-binder development, circular material strategies, and nature-inspired adhesion promoters for asphalt. He is a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) and a Chartered Engineer. Dr Wang has been recognised among the world’s top 2% of scientists from 2023 to 2025 in the fields of Logistics and Transportation and Building and Construction. Motivated by the urgent need to reduce the environmental and societal costs of conventional road construction, he develops innovative engineering solutions that improve speed, resilience, and adaptability to support the UK’s net-zero goals. This Research Fellowship provides the platform to advance his leadership in next-generation modular pavement technologies.