Disappearing asphalt

[pscot]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704913304575370950363737746.html


SPIRITWOOD, N.D.—A hulking yellow machine inched along Old Highway 10 here recently in a summer scene that seemed as normal as the nearby corn swaying in the breeze. But instead of laying a blanket of steaming blacktop, the machine was grinding the asphalt road into bits.

"When had lots of money, they paved a lot of the roads and tried to make life easier for the people who lived out here," said Stutsman County Highway Superintendant Mike Zimmerman, sifting the dusty black rubble through his fingers. "Now, it's catching up to them."


Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue. State money for local roads was cut in many places amid budget shortfalls......In Michigan, at least 38 of the 83 counties have converted some asphalt roads to gravel in recent years. Last year, South Dakota turned at least 100 miles of asphalt road surfaces to gravel. Counties in Alabama and Pennsylvania have begun downgrading asphalt roads to cheaper chip-and-seal road, also known as "poor man's pavement." Some counties in Ohio are simply letting roads erode to gravel.

The moves have angered some residents....but higher taxes for road maintenance are equally unpopular. In June, Stutsman County residents rejected a measure that would have generated more money for roads by increasing property and sales taxes. "I'd rather my kids drive on a gravel road than stick them with a big tax bill," said Bob Baumann, as he sipped a bottle of Coors Light at the Sportsm...

[lob1]

1. Follow the yellow gravel road. It doesn't sound as good.

[tularetom]

2. False economy

The assumption is that there is little or no maintenance required once a road has been turned back to gravel.

I have years of experience with the maintenance of rural roads, paved and unpaved. Gravel roads need to be regraded and recompacted two or three times a year depending the volume and type of traffic.

Roads that are used to transport heavy farm equipment and harvested crops may need even more maintenance.

And spot repairs are required after almost every significant weather event (blizzard or heavy rainstorm).

I feel for Mr Zimmerman but I'd be amazed if he can maintain what appears to be a heavily traveled road for $2,600 per mile per year. And elected officials really need to think twice before they take this step. Number one, they can anticipate a deluge of phone calls from irate farmers and other residents, and they'd better be able to explain the situation to them. And number two, once they realize they've made a mistake, they will have to pay even more to upgrade the road to what is needed (repaving).

Unless they are just trying to get the citizens so pissed off that they will vote to tax themselves for improved roads. That can be hazardous to their future employment.

[pscot]

3. We can afford to lay asphalt in Afghanistan

but North Dakota is beyond our reach

[RKP5637]

5. Isn't that the truth. Our country seems to come last anymore. n/t

[tularetom]

6. Of course you have correctly summarized the entire problem in 14 words

But as a veteran of many years of the county road battles (as a public official AND a owner of property on a sparsely populated and lightly traveled county road) I assure you that point is lost on my neighbors out here.

Between the politicians trying to grab the road funds to pay for god knows what and the oil companies gouging for the price of asphalt, the road commissioners out in these cow counties are getting squoze to death.

The crap will hit the fan, someday. And people will finally wake up and realize you get the government you are willing to pay for.

[RKP5637]

4. I have no road maintenance experience, but I do recall years ago as a kid that rural gravel

roads always seemed to have lots of ongoing problems... mud holes, washouts, severe crowning, all sorts of maintenance issues.

[izquierdista]

7. More like the Third World every day

Except that when I was living in Mexico, they were replacing dirt roads with concrete. Soon there won't be any need to check IDs, Mexicans will have all left for places with better infrastructure.

[n2doc]

9. +1 n/t

[femrap]

8. It's devolution...

maybe we'll get our covered bridges back?

Only those roads that have rich, whiny people on them will get paved.

[txlibdem]

12. Covered bridges

I sure hope so! Some of our so-called advances have made life less... livable.

I love those old covered bridges.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. I know where they can get cheap asphalt.

[truedelphi]

11. I was thinking that myself

Instead, that material is probably being carted off to landfills.

Oil Companies need to keep selling that asphalt material to us. Can't help us figure out that the sea now has plenty of it.

[newfie11]

13. Heck I would be happy if they just put gravel on our road.

The county is having trouble maintaining the gravel roads. Our clay/hardpan roads turn into slick snot when they get wet. Gravel has disappeared.

[Jamastiene]

14. My driveway is red clay and uphill.

I can tell it had gravel there at one time, but only small remnants of it remain now.

I wonder where the gravel went, considering that the clay just doesn't seem to move. It's just baked dry and cracked when we have no rain and like you said, turns really slick when it rains.