Michigan: 50 Miles of Gravel And Counting

[Turtle]

http://www.wwmt.com/articles/roads-1363526-mich-counties.htmlTo save money, more than 20 Michigan counties have decided to turn deteriorating paved roads back to gravel. Montcalm County estimates that repaving a road costs more than $100,000 a mile. Grinding the same mile of road up and turning it into gravel costs $10,000. At least 50 miles of road have been reverted to gravel in Michigan the past three years.

Anyone know how gravel roads handle being snowplowed all winter? Other than perhaps that question, sounds good to me. Dirt and gravel require more of a constant maintenance plan, but while labor intensive, it's still cheaper than patching up asphalt. I don't know if I'd want to see it for State and Interstate roads, but for country roads, sure, why not.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Hmmm... and if they would've gone to rubberized asphalt, we probably wouldn't be discussing this now. Blame Congress kissing up to asphalt lobbyists for that one.

 

[Turtle]

Is that what happened to rubberized asphalt? It was the next big deal, then nothing. I never head what happened there. Seemed like a pretty good idea to me.

On a side note, and I'm not trying to sound like Steven Wright, when we've got all these bazillions of tires rolling along the road, you lose some rubber to heat and friction and the tread wears down. Where'd all that rubber go? You'd think by now we'd have mountains of rubber dust along the roads.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Is that what happened to rubberized asphalt? It was the next big deal, then nothing. I never head what happened there. Seemed like a pretty good idea to me.

On a side note, and I'm not trying to sound like Steven Wright, when we've got all these bazillions of tires rolling along the road, you lose some rubber to heat and friction and the tread wears down. Where'd all that rubber go? You'd think by now we'd have mountains of rubber dust along the roads.

It goes to plug the holes in the ozone, and causes climate chaos.

 

[Turtle]

I found it. That's just one of those pesky questions that's been rattling around in my brain for a while now. The answer seems fine, but you'd think that if 600,000 metric tons of tire tread are worn off American vehicles every year, we'd see more evidence of it than merely "roadside debris". 600,000 metric tons, every year. That's a lotta latex.
"Where Does Tread Rubber Go?" by Peggy J. Fisher

 

[Tennesseahawk]

But it's distributed over million of miles of roadway. Doesn't seem like a lot when it's looked at that way.

 

[greg334]

I had a gravel road until last year. I hate the new road they put in and it was thanks to Detroit Diesel, they pushed the paving of all the roads in the sub. Now I have people racing down the street, we have had several car chases already (detroiters like the smooth surface, they take corners faster in their stolen cars) and I have had my basement flooded four times this year alone because they forgot to put in the drains right, oh and not to mention the approach is 6 inches below the road surface.

The plows handled it well, no big deal. If they dumped gravel every two months on the road and graded it, then it was great. It is actually less of a labor intensive road than having a hard surface that has to be cut up, broken up and repoured.

 

[Steady Eddie]

Michigan has paved roads?

 

[layoutshooter]

LOL!! Michgan is working hard to go back to gravel roads. Want to see what the U.S. is going to look like if Obama gets all the stupid economices he is after? Come here. We have been living the socialist dream in Michigan for years. The place is falling apart and our unemployment is much higher than the rest of the Nation.

 

[pelicn]

Michigan has paved roads?

That was my thought too

 

[moose]

(detroiters like the smooth surface, they take corners faster in their stolen cars)

Detroit have smooth surface ?


To the point...
a time for a state wide car wash start-up ?

(and why do they try to save on labor costs ? , don't they need to create jobs ? )

 

[greg334]

Detroit have smooth surface ?

No actually my sub now has very smooth roads, they rip through there like it was a race course.

 

[layoutshooter]

No actually my sub now has very smooth roads, they rip through there like it was a race course.

They rip through there like a race course and I bet the cops won't do a thing till a kid gets killed. We had that problem when I was growing up. Two young punks from the street behind us used to race up and down our street. We called the cops and they did nothing. After a couple of near misses with little kids getting hit and the cops STILL doing nothing I put a rock through the side window of one of them as they race by. THAT stopped them AND got the cops out. The cops yelled at me and ticketed the would-be racers after 10 or 15 neighbors came out and complained that the cops were not doing their job. Never had a problem after that.

 

[greg334]

We got a lot of kids around us. The kid across the street used to rip out of the driveway and down the street until someone flatten his tires. We asked for a stop sign to be put up at the intersection, several wrecks a year happen there but the cops, Detroit cops that is, are the ones who are doing all the chasing - it is like complaining to a rock.

 

[layoutshooter]

We got a lot of kids around us. The kid across the street used to rip out of the driveway and down the street until someone flatten his tires. We asked for a stop sign to be put up at the intersection, several wrecks a year happen there but the cops, Detroit cops that is, are the ones who are doing all the chasing - it is like complaining to a rock.

Rocks have more uses than the Detroit Police Department. They are a corrupt as the city and region are.