## 1 Introduction
Research on New-age (Nano) Modified Emulsions (NME) stabilising agents (including, but not limited to, nano-modified bitumen emulsions [8; 11; 12; 23]) will ensure that engineers can perform scientifically based materials designs for road construction to limit risk by increasing aggregate adhesion and to provide sustainable hydrophobic (water repellent) pavement layers with confidence. The general introduction of these nanotechnologies could form the cornerstone of sustainable road networks with proven resistance to the:* Destructive effect of water by introducing the concept of hydrophobicity to every particle within a pavement layer that is being treated to prevent future in-situ chemical decomposition [8];
* Formation of deep potholes when surfacing has been compromised [23]. and
* Destructive effect of overloaded heavy vehicles with damage factors (n) [8; 15] below n = 2 (F = (P/80)n), where P is the measured dual wheel single axle load measured in kN and F is the relative impact of a load (P) to a standard 80 kN dual wheel single axle load. It follows that the higher the damage factor (n) the greater the impact of axle load exceeding the standard of 80 kN will be on the pavement structure. However, the introduction of any new disruptive technology [24], in a traditionally well-established industry such as the road construction industry, is usually associated with considerable resistance. This is especially relevant when the new technology is based on the use of:  
* Granular materials traditionally considered to be of marginal or even unacceptable quality for use in specific pavement layers [9];
* Relatively new concepts in pavement engineering such as New-age (Nano) Modified Emulsions (NME) [8; 10];
* Test requirements such as XRD scans [4; 10] (relatively old concepts in fields such as geology and mining) to analyse naturally available granular materials [20], and
* Scientifically founded materials design methods based on the mineralogy of materials and material-compatible nano-modified stabilising agents [19; 23] and the use of material tests indicative of fundamental engineering properties, such as the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) [25] and Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS) [26]. Although most of these concepts have been in used for many a decade, if not for more than a century in the built environment [1; 2; 3], the traditional road construction industry is notoriously conservative. In terms of the use of material-compatible nanotechnologies, benefits have been demonstrated for construction methods ranging from the most basic to the most advanced [18]. However, it is rare that construction projects are conducted without any problems. In the case of relatively new materials (nanotechnology modifications), this give contractors an obvious scapegoat to blame in view of any identified construction problems, especially in the presence of supervision personnel that are not very experienced. The main objective of this article is aimed at pre-empting the \"blame game\" during construction, by giving supervision engineers insight into typical problems that may be experienced on site. This is done by:  
* Identifying the most prominent causes of NME technology that result in stabilised layers not meeting specifications, which can easily be prevented by following sound construction processes (provided that developed materials design methods are followed [8; 23]), using material compatible modified stabilising agents, and
* Showing and discussing typical examples of problems encountered during the implementation of anionic NME technology using anionic modified bitumen emulsion stabilising agents on \(\pm\)10 actual road construction projects and, in the case of material-compatible products resulting in construction-related problems, drawn from experience on countless examples in practice. Initially, all the problems shown were immediately blamed on the new NME technology together with the use of \"unsuitable\" naturally available materials to construct the pavement layers.