you noticed it too... funny how that works
Posted on 02/06/2017 4:05:45 PM PST by Lorianne
One place it has been done is Butler County, Alabama
Some cities and counties in the U.S. are avoiding the cost of repaving roads by converting them to unpaved roads.
Among the municipalities in the report is Butler County Alabama, which is listed as having 250 Miles of unpaved roads and spending- $4-Million a year on roads. The county officials say the decision to covert a road from paved to unpaved was made because it was the most cost effective way to deal with a problem road. The report does not identify the road.
In some cases, officials just let the roads deteriorate. In others they crunch up the existing road surface and add gravel to create a new road surface.
There have been about 70 such conversions, stretching along 550 miles of road in at least 27 states, according to a 2015 review of the projects produced by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program.
(Excerpt) Read more at alabamanews.net ...
This is because we spend fuel taxes on BS like high speed rail and welfare.
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>> “This is because we spend fuel taxes on BS like high speed rail and welfare.” <<
Comment of the century!
NY has a novel way of doing this process: if you don’t fix potholes, the road eventually self converts back to unpaved without any cost outlay for the conversion itself.
you noticed it too... funny how that works
Personally, I love it.
I won’t be riding my bike on it, but I like it. And it’s obvious that anyone who supports this has never been on a motorcycle.
And if you haven’t been on one, or are not on one right now you’re simply not that much of an American :)
That gravel is then tossed up on the sides of your car and oncoming traffic, which in a short period of time reduces that $30-40 thousand machine you were proud of, to a scratched up beat up old war horse.
Remaining resale value? $1,250.00 at age 24 months.
What a swell ides.
Why not just take a sledge hammer to it?
Do state officials ever come up with a sound idea?
It’s obvious this is an insidious plot by the tire
and rubber industry...tread lightly.
There might be an alternative, which provides a better surface at less cost than bare gravel. When I lived in Canada’s far north, the Highways department discovered that a “bituminous surface treatment” (BST) surface was cheaper than gravel, in the long run. (BST is something like tar — it looks like asphalt paving; but it’s not as thick and solid). That’s because a gravel road needs a lot more routine maintenance — including replacement of material lost through dust clouds — than a “paved” surface. Only the main highways, near major settlements, are paved (with asphalt); but, most of the secondary roads have a BST surface.
The BST surface is much safer to drive on, and almost eliminates windshield damage from flying gravel. (Before BST, nearly every windshield in the North was chipped or cracked.)
Yes, it’s cheaper to go to dirt roads so in the spring we can dump about 200 tons of gravel on them for every mile when they turn to soup. LOL
I remember as a kid, every few years they tarred and graveled over a base of asphalt. It was fast and filled a lot of cracks and imperfections before they got too bad.
Some towns even ran a sweeper over the roads after and collected the excess gravel and reused it.
Now they pave once and then let them fall apart.
Paved roads distinguish modern civilization from third world hellholes. Such places have high rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from breathing clouds of filth kicked up by roadways 24/7. In rural parts of asia and africa you develop a cough after a while even if you don’t smoke.
So here's what you need to understand about unpaved, dirt roads: a couple of times a year you send out a road grader to smooth them out, occasionally add gravel to softer spots.
The road-grader travels at maybe 15 mph, and in a matter of days covers every dirt road in the county.
If you do that faithfully, you've got fairly nice roads at a pretty cheap price.
Yes, they are dusty, but not necessarily bumpy.
If you fail to keep up with grading, those dirt roads will quickly become undrivable.
Paved country roads cost considerably more to maintain, but also deteriorate more slowly.
But they also can become undrivable after a few winters of neglect.
Bottom line: whatever type road you have must, must be maintained and failure to do so should be a matter of corporal punishment for the officials responsible.
This is what I recommend:
We use to call that blacktop and is excellent for light duty traffic.
grew up in area where roads were oiled and stoned/gravel periodically.
Also lived in area where they still have dirt/gravel roads but the washout with rains or snow and thaw makes troughs and mud, have to regrade often in some seasons.
now live in area where lots of gravel. lots of chipped windows and car hoods.
I grew up in a county that had more miles of unpaved roads than any other in the state. The county DOT had a dredging operation on the Dan River. All the unpaved roads were maintained using river sand and river gravel. They were graded regularly to keep the washboarding down. The same crew than maintained the unpaved roads maintained the paved roads, as well as salting and plowing the roads in winter, it was a year-round operation.
They generally were pretty decent roads, other than in very heavy rain or during dry spells with the dust. But, back in the 90’s the county did a study and determined that paving these unpaved secondary roads with tar and gravel would be a lower cost proposition in comparison to the system they had, which had been in place since the Depression. So they began paving them all, and did.
I sort of miss the old sandy river rock backroads, myself. I don’t miss the dust and the dirty car, or the possibility of the road washing out in a heavy rain.
some of the more expensive land/old estates/horse farms etc in some states in northeast are dirt and gravel roads. they keep them that way so there is less traffic from all the congested paved roads of commuters. they are the ones that wash out after rains or snow and thaw.
We moved to Idaho last July & we’ve found a lot of unpaved roads. They go by ranches in the ‘outback’ areas & eventually reconnect with a main road. They aren’t private, however. Seems a sensible way to keep costs down.
BST is essentially a more advanced process than the older types of blacktop. I’m no expert (obviously); but, I do know that it works, and that it’s way better than bare gravel. It’s also better than old-style tar surfaces. The fact that it often costs less than bare gravel can make it a no brainier. (Asphalt or concrete is more cost-effective, and better for high-traffic roads. Gravel is cheaper for seldom-used back roads. BST’s sweet spot is secondary roads with low to moderate traffic.)
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