Roads to Ruin: Towns Rip Up the Pavement(since not enough money to fix them)

[RedEarth]

A road crew in Jamestown, N.D., where road repair means reclaiming the original asphalt and processing it to resemble gravel.


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.

........

Outside this speck of a town, pop. 78, a 10-mile stretch of road had deteriorated to the point that residents reported seeing ducks floating in potholes, Mr. Zimmerman said. As the road wore out, the cost of repaving became too great. Last year, the county spent $400,000 on an RM300 Caterpillar rotary mixer to grind the road up, making it look more like the old homesteader trail it once was.

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.

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

[villager]

1. The GOP used to accuse "eco-hippies" of wanting to tear up paved roads...

...and yet it was the GOP who succeeded in doing it!

[Brickbat]

2. Why isn't this embarrassing? Why don't we as a nation think this is embarrassing?

We used to be so proud of our accomplishments. Where did that go?

[bhikkhu]

7. because its a good idea

gravel roads are low maintenance, while pavement is very energy intensive to keep up.

Very simple - if we don't have the money for pavement, gravel works as well for most things (except smooth high-speed travel).

[TwilightGardener]

8. Gravel sucks if one wants to go over 30 miles an hour. Dangerous, and

damaging to paint and windshields, and dusty, and you can't stop quickly.

[bhikkhu]

9. Only dangerous to careless drivers

...as would be any other road. Its fine if you aren't in a big rush.

In any case, the "road to ruin" is spending what you don't have, and building infrastructure you can't maintain. So I would say in many cases gravel is a very good road surface.

[Radical Activist]

3. Good. The asphalt lobby is a racket.

[bergie321]

4. I bet

They would find the money to repave the road if it led to a secluded, hilltop mansion.

[tanyev]

5. Well, the GOP does yearn for the 1950s.

So this should make Republican voters happy, no?

[Citizen Worker]

6. Is that a typo? Did you mean the 1850s?