Reverting paved roads to UNpaved status

Alabama News ^ | 24 January 2017 | Tim Lennox

[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.

[Lorianne]

Interesting,
Thanks for posting

[az_gila]

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.)

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Lots of roads like that in Arizona, but here they are called “chip seal”.

Our HOA costs them at about 1/4 of an asphalt overlay.

[meatloaf]

I know of a dam that was built similarly in the 1800s. It was built with alternative layers of logs and rock. It worked well enough to collect water to run an undershot driven grist/saw mill.

[headstamp 2]

I remember that! LOL

The tree huggers would go insane over that these days.

[Celerity]

I know a guy who had a hand in it’s design.

The Rokon is neat, and should be part of everyone’s bugout preps. If you can find / afford one, that is.

[suthener]

I assure you I am a real man, and I’m 57 years old. I recently just missed buying a house on a dirt road. I don’t have a personal problem with dirt roads; I have a problem with devolving in progress and civilization which I think this demonstrates. Think of the money we could save by letting sewage flow down our dirt road! Yes, we had dirt roads up to the 70s. I grew up living on one. It’s called progress and the fact that we can’t now afford to maintain our roads is not a positive sign.

I am not a “metrosexual pansy”, and are you really that much older than me?

[Mogger]

The Rokon is neat, and should be part of everyone’s bugout preps. If you can find / afford one, that is.

I'm sure the factory in Rochester, New Hampshire will crank out all that people will buy.

Much safer, cheaper, more versatile than an ATV.

Three times the fuel economy of an ATV, and you can store over 4 gallons of fuel or water in the wheels.

60+ miles per gallon.

A lot of attachments.

[Axenolith]

That’s some cool stuff!

[Cymbaline]

Welcome to Starnesville.