To: Lessismore
Concrete roads are good for a number of reasons, but they suck in northern climates. Inevitably there are cracks that allow water to get at the rebar. In the winter this water includes road salt. The road salt greatly increases the rate of rusting of the rebar, until it expands enough to crack the concrete around it. Then you have a crumbling concrete road surface that needs patched, which just doesn't work well. And repaving a concrete road is a really major project.
It's too bad, too, as concrete doesn't flex like asphalt, so roads paved with it tend to be flat and even and smooth, expcept for the expansion joints. Heavy trucks actually have less rolling resistance on concrete, as the asphalt road surfaces will actually flex under the wheels, so that the truck is essentially constantly pulling itself out of a dip in the road.
67 posted on
11/28/2002 2:23:06 PM PST by
-YYZ-
To: -YYZ-
Concrete roads are good for a number of reasons, but they suck in northern climates. True. But consider that one of the consequences of switching to an alternative fuel system, like hydrogen fuel cells using hydrogen produced from water by fusion nuclear plants, will be that there will be no more asphalt for paving. So using fuels made by other than refining crude oil implies using another paving system, be it concrete or something else.
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