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Posted on 07/17/2010 5:59:50 AM PDT by reaganaut1
...
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 because of the choking dust and windshield-cracking stones that gravel roads can kick up, not to mention the jarring "washboard" effect of driving on rutted gravel.
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 Sportsman's Bar Café and Gas in Spiritwood.
Rebuilding an asphalt road today is particularly expensive because the price of asphalt cement, a petroleum-based material mixed with rocks to make asphalt, has more than doubled over the past 10 years. Gravel becomes a cheaper option once an asphalt road has been neglected for so long that major rehabilitation is necessary.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
What's the city's shooting count up to for 2010? Seems like I hear about a shooting every night over there....
The real news here is that PA roads were ever anything better than chip-and-seal.
ROFL!
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Michigan is Blue. . . When visiting a friend in a Michigan suburban community (where there are some gravel roads at the request of the affluent home owners) I was surprised to see a number of roads graveled. On our way home, I asked my husband if we could drive into Detroit and was shocked to see many roads in the city were not paved. Interesting.
The real news here is that PA roads were ever anything better than chip-and-seal.
I always thought "chip-and-seal" was something they did to the asphalt roads to try to make them last longer.
But we also had dirt roads that they soaked with crappy oil to keep the dust down.
And while other places had gravel roads, we had "cinder roads" in Pittsburgh (which was a good/cheap way of getting rid of the cinders from the still mills anat. Cinders were also used on all the other roads during the winter instead of salt.)
You are right on with this...the indoctrination centers of the left (public schools ) are considered sacred institutions even though the product has been failing since being unionized in the 40s...
Atlas shrugged.
Deliberately. Check out a book called the Deliberate Dumbing Down of America by Charlotte Thompson Iserbyte. It's available on line for free now. Ms. Iserbyte is a former muckty-muck with the Department of (re)Education turned whistle blower. She uses documents obtained through the FOIA that cover a span of over 60 years to prove her case. It's a real eye opener and should be required reading for anyone who is a parent or anyone who is wondering why there are so many functionally illiterate people wandering around in our society.....
“Cinders were also used on all the other roads during the winter instead of salt.”
I recall bashing my knuckles against those ciders, while riding the Flexible Flyer, when a large chunk was left on the road. My kids love The Sled.
Pennsylvania’s roads have been a joke for years. But Fast Eddie just got millions of dollars from the feds which he is going to use for homages to Murtha and Specter.
And I thought PA was the only state dumb enough to think spreading oil and chips was an alternative to fixing the roads properly!
The potholes assume their prior existence after about 5 days of settling.
No, he just borrowed the money for the Specter and Murtha museums. We’ll have to pay it back and more.
PennDOT still uses cinders in the winter, but now they call it “anti-skid material.”
I was curious when it was described to me as being one of a kind, and they had designed it to their specifications. It seems that what it unique is their front bumper was extended to make a toolbox to keep their hydraulics and other stuff.
The guy just looked at me kind of funny when I asked what they expect to happen if the truckers off the road, down the side of one of our steep hills, and plows into a tree headlong?Hmmmmmmmmmmm!
My road is graveled. It is wretched when it snows or ices up, but that gravel gives a certain amount of grip on the steep hill where I live. Except during the 3 foot snow in February, my Windstar van was just as useful as my four-wheel-drive explorer. when it's that deep, you sit in the house by a fire, and watch the idiots drive by with their lifted redneck limousines.
Blade Runner:
Flying cars with tires for the cops,
Bicycles for the sheeple, all of them. Millions of them.
Quote:
“They say you Blade Runner”
I remember when the clinton’s used to drone on and on about “it’s for the children” why they did anything. Now the libs have kicked the kids under the bus and made it all about themselves.
As long as they don’t get a lot of traffic, especially heavy trucks. Most of the roads in NM are chip/seal as they call it here and work well, but truck traffic can tear them apart overnight.
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