Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
Hot, Cold and Recycled: Different Asphalts for Different Conditions January 2012
America has spent more than one trillion dollars building its infrastructure of streets, roads, highways and superhighways. Because that building program began decades ago – for cars and bicycles 100 years ago, and in earnest since the 1950s – much of that investment today is crumbling. Potholes are everywhere – but so too is the innovative drive to plug up those breaks in asphalt (most roads are built with asphalt, although some are made with concrete).
How Road Salt Leads to Rough Pavement (Sometimes) March 2011
That pothole your car hit sometime in the past week: can you blame it on salt used this past winter?
If you live in Los Angeles, where potholes-per-mile are among the highest in the nation, the answer clearly is no. Los Angeles does not use salt. Never has, and probably never will. When the roads ice up in Los Angeles County, it is so rare an event that the city has no road salting supplies or methods. Almost always, it melts in a day or two with nary a granule of salt applied. The ubiquitous potholes there form because of water, wear, high temperatures and time.
How Do Potholes Form? July 2010
Maybe you call it a chuckhole or a kettle, but the causes of potholes by any name are many. Asphalt repair done right can fix most of it.
Anyone who claims to know the number of potholes in America must think they can count all the French fries sold at McDonald’s. Not only are there a gazillion of them, but there are new ones every day. Potholes are, unfortunately, a fact of life in a world of roads, where people and things have miles to travel.
Some potholes are just little cracks. And some could swallow an Escalade. Which is kind of the point: potholes grow bigger the longer they are left unfixed. They are almost alive.