It’s been said before that there are five seasons in Minnesota: winter, spring, summer, fall and the longest one of them all – road construction!

Road construction can be a major headache, especially for farmers who need those roads to transport their crops to market. However, there are now products out there working to extend the life of those roads and reduce road construction that are made out of the very same soybeans being transported to the elevator. Soy-based road rejuvenators, such as RePlay and BIORESTOR, are saving cities time and money, all while providing a sustainable solution.

“It’s the magic of the soybean and soy methyl ester!” said Harold Stanislawski, business and industry development director for the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI). “It’s been proven to perform as an alternative to other oils, all while being sustainable and cost competitive.”

Biobased asphalt rejuvenators are designed to extend the life of asphalt surfaces, such as city streets, parking lots, airport runways and bike paths, by restoring essential oils, reducing oxidization and improving flexibility, according to information provided by BioSpan Technologies, the creator of RePlay. It reduces cracking, raveling and other forms of deterioration. The non-toxic RePlay is made up of 56% soy-oil and is 88% biobased. It also equates to about 100 soybean bushels for every lane-mile applied.

Out of a need to get more use out of its roads, the city of Hutchinson, which worked with AURI to conduct a study on the pavement preservation and life-cycle cost analysis, has been using RePlay since 2012, applying it to about three miles of city streets per year. While there are other forms of asphalt rejuvenators on the markets, Hutchinson Public Works Manager Donavan Schuette says the soy-oil based products were the best option for their city.

“They’re the easiest to apply, especially in-house, because it doesn’t require any special equipment and we can do it ourselves,” Schuette said. “With RePlay we didn’t have to worry about overspray either because there’s nothing in it that could harm the grass.”

One of the biggest advantages that a soy-based asphalt rejuvenator has to offer for cities like Hutchinson is the cost savings. On average, the treatment can extend the life of a road by up to 40% and do so at only a fraction of the cost of an overlay.

“The cost to redo a road is around $30 a square yard and the price of applying RePlay is only about $1.25 a square yard, so if you can increase the life expectancy by another five years at a fraction of the cost that’s a significant cost savings,” Schuette said.

Downtime is also minimal, fully adhering in just around 30 minutes, meaning less time for drivers having to maneuver around traffic cones and less traffic jams. And for someone like AURI’s Stanislawski, who travels all across the state promoting the uses for agriculture, it’s noticeable when cities such as Hutchinson take pride in their roads.

“When you go to a community like Hutchinson and drive their streets, you can see the difference it has made,” Stanislawski said. “A city that takes care of their streets looks and feels more progressive and is on the move.”

And it’s not just city streets where soy is smoothing out the ride. There are also products like BioSealcoat, a soy-based sealcoat designed to protect parking lots, driveways and trails, and OptiSeal™, which is another bio-based product from BioSpan Technologies aimed at extending the life of concrete surfaces by 7-10 years. As technology continues to accelerate, Stanislawski notes that there are more soy-driven innovations coming down the expressway.

“There is one company looking at utilizing soy hulls into their formula for the asphalt sealcoat as well, which would be a good use for a byproduct of the soy crush industry,” Stanislawski said. “The innovation is ongoing in the world of soybeans.”