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A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

thestar.com

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Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#21

Post by tarmon »

woliveirajr wrote: post #7
throwawaylalala wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have potholes in Florida. No freezing.

Put water inside the hole, run over it with a car that will put some pressure on it, and it'll fill all those small cracks inside the asphalt. Repeat many times. Also, asphalt isn't solid, it get thinner when the sun is high, deforming every time a car runs over it in the summer. South of south America, more or less equivalent to Florida: no freezing during winter and not that hot during summer, but everytime there's…

Just want to point out that it's asphalt, not asfalt. :)

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#22

Post by Yetanfou »

nategri wrote: post #15

Haha I really expected the "pothole problem" to be some kind of mathematical conjecture. Nope, literal holes in literal roads.

Same here, especially with the original title of "a 30 year old machine that solves the pothole problem", gave me visions of a Commodore 64 doing something which could also have been done on a musical gift card nowadays (but isn't). Pity, really, physical pothole problems are so simple to solve...

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#23

Post by dsfyu404ed »

shmageggy wrote: post #8

I've always wondered why we still have such crappy roads, given that roads are possibly the oldest technology there is, and every civilized place on earth has paved roads, thus making an enormous potential market for a better solution. Either: 1) Most people don't care as much as I do about the bone-jarring, car-ruining potholes that are ubiquitous in every cold climate on earth, and thus aren't willing to spend thei…

>I've always wondered why we still have such crappy roads

Because crappy, like poverty is relative and very much subjective.

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#24

Post by zentiggr »

> Nichols said the AMIR “has great potential” to extend the life of roads, and “save significant taxpayer dollars.” In 2016, an MTO analysis found that the province would save $50 million annually if roads on the MTOs highways could last even one year longer.

And there you go... goes against the contractors' interests to use more efficient means, so this compactor's use will have to be mandated by city governments who want to avoid the political backlash of public awareness of wasted budget. Or in other words, good luck with that grassroots campaign.

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#26

Post by megaman22 »

axaxs wrote: post #2

I've always read that road damage was caused by heavy vehicles(semis) which stress fracture the roads, which in turn fill with water, freeze, expand, rinse and repeat. This article seems to imply it's caused by the road design itself, though. Wonder which is true (or both)?

Usually it's badly designed road bed underneath. Many roads don't have a proper foundation underneath, so unless that is fixed, just repaving them is a stopgap measure, and it just starts cracking and subsiding in the same places it was bad before.

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#27

Post by yousir »

woliveirajr wrote: post #7
throwawaylalala wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have potholes in Florida. No freezing.

Put water inside the hole, run over it with a car that will put some pressure on it, and it'll fill all those small cracks inside the asphalt. Repeat many times. Also, asphalt isn't solid, it get thinner when the sun is high, deforming every time a car runs over it in the summer. South of south America, more or less equivalent to Florida: no freezing during winter and not that hot during summer, but everytime there's…

> South of south America, more or less equivalent to Florida

Are you calling North America "America", and then go on and call Florida "south America", as if there isn't such a place in the world as South America? I do not approve of this North America-centric view of the world at all.

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#28

Post by CoffeeDregs »

I was literally wondering about this question the other day. It's 2018; we can make CPUs with 12nm features but we can't make a long lasting asphalt?

Fascinating:

    Nichols said the AMIR “has great potential” to extend 
    the life of roads, and “save significant taxpayer 
    dollars.” In 2016, an MTO analysis found that the 
    province would save $50 million annually if roads on the 
    MTOs highways could last even one year longer.

    "The MTO is not planning on buying or specifying the use 
    of AMIR asphalt rollers..."
Might be of interest, too: http://www.dykespaving.com/blog/why-use-asphalt-instead-of-c...

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#29

Post by mc32 »

yousir wrote: post #27
woliveirajr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put water inside the hole, run over it with a car that will put some pressure on it, and it'll fill all those small cracks inside the asphalt. Repeat many times. Also, asphalt isn't solid, it get thinner when the sun is high, deforming every time a car runs over it in the summer. South of south America, more or less equivalent to Florida: no freezing during winter and not that hot during summer, but everytime there's…

> South of south America, more or less equivalent to Florida Are you calling North America "America", and then go on and call Florida "south America", as if there isn't such a place in the world as South America? I do not approve of this North America-centric view of the world at all.

Southern would work better than south. Proper place names which have cardinal pints in their names typically will use South and not Southern. So we have South Africa, South Australia, South Dakota. But southern California, southern South Dakota, etc.

Re: A transportation engineer has a simple solution to potholes: pave better roads

#30

Post by CoffeeDregs »

axaxs wrote: post #2

I've always read that road damage was caused by heavy vehicles(semis) which stress fracture the roads, which in turn fill with water, freeze, expand, rinse and repeat. This article seems to imply it's caused by the road design itself, though. Wonder which is true (or both)?

From the article: Conventional wisdom suggests that cracks begin deep in the roadbed and gradually migrate upward, eventually breaking out on the asphalt surface. Not so, claims Halim. The cracks have already been created by the rollers, regardless of the temperature and asphalt mixture used.

I would guess that the mechanism of action is that water gets through the cracks and erodes the underlayment.

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