Are there any sustainable road construction technologies and materials that do not rely on petrochemicals?
Cobblestone.
How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
41–50 of 324 posts
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those numbers are inline with my development where we maintain .9 miles of private road with HOA dues; the quotes we've received all orbit around $250-300k for the last several years. Yes we have hard winters. What we don't have is frequent heavy vehicles at speed. The state actually bans certain types of commercial vehicles on specific roads in the spring when road beds are soft. The figures cited in this story seem…
Are you replying to a different comment?
Nope.
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#43I feel like I am missing something here, a mile of road in a rural area costs $1,500,000 to reconstruct? How do small towns afford to maintain their roads?? Perhaps there are many costs that don't inflate as the number of miles increases, like the equipment needed to break down and repave the roads?
The relevant number here is the cost to repave, not reconstruct, which is about $330,000-$350,000 per mile for a minor arterial road in a rural or urban area. As to how small towns afford it--you don't repave that often, and you focus efforts on what to repave. For example, Cedar Rapids, Iowa calculated it would cost $500 million over 10 years to repave everything that needs to be repaved: https://www.kcrg.com/conten…
the "$2,5000" typo is an extra 0, not a comma in the wrong place. $1b/400k = $2500 per household
for more perspective, cedar rapids average income is $54,465 per household, compared to $99,669 for the DC metro area.
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#44I feel like I am missing something here, a mile of road in a rural area costs $1,500,000 to reconstruct? How do small towns afford to maintain their roads?? Perhaps there are many costs that don't inflate as the number of miles increases, like the equipment needed to break down and repave the roads?
Since rural roads get significantly less traffic, they require less maintenance (Though get similar amounts of frost heave damage). Maintenance is often just filling in potholes and cracks, with occasional resurfacing. Of course, there are a ton of non-local funding that gets drawn from: - federal and state gas taxes - state vehicle registration fees (varying by type and weight of vehicle) - state, county and municip…
Having lived in the midwest and the south, frost heave has a _major_ impact! Seems like the cycle is 12 years or so on road repavement, but that's anecdotal.
Also note there are a _lot_ of grading options available, some as simple as gravel and tar.
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The relevant number here is the cost to repave, not reconstruct, which is about $330,000-$350,000 per mile for a minor arterial road in a rural or urban area. As to how small towns afford it--you don't repave that often, and you focus efforts on what to repave. For example, Cedar Rapids, Iowa calculated it would cost $500 million over 10 years to repave everything that needs to be repaved: https://www.kcrg.com/conten…
the "$2,5000" typo is an extra 0, not a comma in the wrong place. $1b/400k = $2500 per household for more perspective, cedar rapids average income is $54,465 per household, compared to $99,669 for the DC metro area.
Thanks, yes, the extra zero was a typo.
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#46Are expensive roads really needed? What if we see a gradual decline in roadway expenditures in the USA, transitioning our economy to involve less driving and more work from home, deliveries via drone/efficient vehicle, promote self-sufficiency, not to mention biking, walking, trains, etc...my point is maybe we won't need/use roads as much as we do now. One would hope so, but it seems our VMT is going up over time whi…
There are roads in our county in New Jersey that have been transitioned from paved back to gravel, presumably based on usage and the anticipated savings from maintaining gravel over asphalt. I'm not a civil engineer and I don't know what all the tradeoffs are, but it seems to me that we're either going to have to admit we can't afford so much paving, or we're going to have to agree to pay higher taxes.
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
This reminds me of a blog post about the unsustainability of suburbs — https://mikethemadbiologist.com/2017/03/20/the-fiscal-unsust... Even if this $1.5m figure is wildly inflated, calculate how few people live on a given mile in the suburbs, a conservative estimate on how much it costs to maintain a road, and the numbers just don't add up. The suburbs were a ponzi scheme and the bottom is about to fall out.
Or maybe how much road costs in the USA is a bit of a strawman version of how much road costs. Come on, some remote villages in the third world have paved roads to them.
The third world has a lot more miles of dirt roads than paved roads. The slightly more expencive gravel roads are fine for suburban cul-de-sac‘a / side streets that don’t get that much traffic.
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#48Are there any sustainable road construction technologies and materials that do not rely on petrochemicals?
Concrete is pretty much the only alternative that can handle 40+ tonnes trucks and be cost effective. It will last longer, but it's more expensive to build - could be cheaper on the long run. You get a bit more tire noise and less traction than on the asphalt.
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#49I feel like I am missing something here, a mile of road in a rural area costs $1,500,000 to reconstruct? How do small towns afford to maintain their roads?? Perhaps there are many costs that don't inflate as the number of miles increases, like the equipment needed to break down and repave the roads?
The relevant number here is the cost to repave, not reconstruct, which is about $330,000-$350,000 per mile for a minor arterial road in a rural or urban area. As to how small towns afford it--you don't repave that often, and you focus efforts on what to repave. For example, Cedar Rapids, Iowa calculated it would cost $500 million over 10 years to repave everything that needs to be repaved: https://www.kcrg.com/conten…
That's a very apples-oranges comparison. DC commuters benefit from Metrorail even if they don't use it. And the Metrorail capital budget is for much more than just trackway (i.e. railcars, buses, parking garages, etc).
Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?
#50I feel like I am missing something here, a mile of road in a rural area costs $1,500,000 to reconstruct? How do small towns afford to maintain their roads?? Perhaps there are many costs that don't inflate as the number of miles increases, like the equipment needed to break down and repave the roads?
There's always the humble dirt road, perhaps with a little crushed gravel. Regrading it periodically is not free but with low traffic levels dirt can be cheaper.