Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why isn't LA repaving streets?

lapublicpress.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 327 posts

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#121

Post by djoldman »

mschuster91 wrote: post #117
djoldman wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! Is it possible to make the ramps offsite and then fit into place? EDIT: I'm assuming the difficulty here is the pedestrian ramps at intersections. NOT the curb that spans the entirety of a road section.

> EDIT: I'm assuming the difficulty here is the pedestrian ramps at intersections. NOT the curb that spans the entirety of a road section. The curb elements are made offsite. All you do onsite is to cut the stones to length if need be. The challenge is properly anchoring them into the surrounding soil, and for that you need a concrete foundation. Basically, you make a gravel (or concrete) foundation, then you put dow…

Ah, that's not how they do it in Chicago.

In Chicago, they concrete form the curb on site.

https://blackhawkpaving.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Concr...

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#122

Post by [deleted] »

GorbachevyChase wrote: post #115
scoofy wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in CA. My state senator is Scott Wiener. We are making some progress. Your argument might be plausible if it weren't for the fact that this issue is happening -- predictably -- in every major sprawling city in America. Strong Towns has literally built a tool to effectively convert cities' cash-accounting budgets into accrual-accounting budgets. You can see it happening over time... you just need to account for…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#123

Post by mschuster91 »

linkjuice4all wrote: post #16
mschuster91 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don't they asphalt curb to curb for a mile and then come back and do the ramps one at a time? As someone who did a stint in this kind of construction: not possible, you'd still need to re-pave about 30-50cm worth of road, because curbstones are (usually) suspended in a bunch of concrete to avoid them getting dislocated by cars hitting or driving over them. The result will be a faultline from which you will get…

LA is fortunate in that it doesn't suffer from freeze/thaw cycles and can put down a lot more concrete without worrying about expansion/contraction and water ingress. I've noticed that a fair amount of concrete sidewalk in Los Angeles appears to have been poured when the neighborhoods were first developed (as in post-WW2) and haven't been removed or updated since then (at least based on the date/contractor stamps). A…

> LA is fortunate in that it doesn't suffer from freeze/thaw cycles and can put down a lot more concrete without worrying about expansion/contraction and water ingress.

The freeze thaw cycles more impact the asphalt. Basically, wherever there is a joint that has been improperly sealed with tar, or the asphalt cracks due to overload - e.g. from heavy vehicles in general or especially surrounding bus stops due to the force of buses accelerating in the summer, when the asphalt is softer, you get water seeping through into the asphalt... and when it then freezes, it expands, making the pothole worse with every cycle of thawing and freezing.

That is why it is so important to properly repair potholes. Some youtubers have made themselves infamous by fixing potholes themselves, but they use non-melting ready mix... that works in a pinch to make sure that vehicles don't get damaged, but you will need to rip that out to the foundation, fix the holes with gravels, compact that, place proper hot molten asphalt, compact that, fill again and compact, and then seal the edges with tar. Otherwise the ready-mix will disintegrate over time and you'll end up with the original pothole, or with an even worse one if you have freeze and thaw cycles.

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#124

Post by mschuster91 »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #51
fsckboy wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what you mean, but I belive we're talking about "wheelchair ramps" at street corners some of the laws mandating that type of thing specify "if/when you renovate something, you need to bring it up to code, otherwise you can skate on the code" this affects a lot of the little tiny shops in NYC. if you change your facade or bathrooms, they need to be made accessible. however, it's not the cost of renovation…

Around here real estate listings are starting to not do interior pictures because the towns are known to predate on them for "hey you didn't get a permit for that bathroom reno" type crap.

Y'all need permits for non-structural (i.e. layout/framing stays the same) bathroom renovations? Holy shit.

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#125

Post by [deleted] »

trollbridge wrote: post #76
stock_toaster wrote: post #38

Maybe roads would last longer if we weren't all being forced to buy super heavy SUVs just so automakers can skirt emissions and fuel economy requirements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPm4de6-eTg

People in cities generally want deliveries of goods, which requires heavy trucks.

[deleted]

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#126

Post by mschuster91 »

djoldman wrote: post #121
mschuster91 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EDIT: I'm assuming the difficulty here is the pedestrian ramps at intersections. NOT the curb that spans the entirety of a road section. The curb elements are made offsite. All you do onsite is to cut the stones to length if need be. The challenge is properly anchoring them into the surrounding soil, and for that you need a concrete foundation. Basically, you make a gravel (or concrete) foundation, then you put dow…

Ah, that's not how they do it in Chicago. In Chicago, they concrete form the curb on site. https://blackhawkpaving.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Concr...

Oh good god. I can see that cracking all the way to Germany. Concrete surfaces need stress relief.

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#127

Post by doug_durham »

scoofy wrote: post #70

I have been a Strong Towns follower/member for about 6 years. I really don't think people realize the world of pain we're signing up for by not actually fixing the underlying problem of lack of density and walk-ability and their effect on the municipal budgets of American cities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Towns I know municipal finance is about as exciting socks for Christmas, but if the Strong Towns thesi…

You use the phrase "trivially fix". If your definition of "trivially" means several decades with the investment of billions of dollars, then perhaps. There are no "trivial fixes" in city infrastructure. Re-zoning only works if there are developers who want to redevelop the land. For existing neighborhoods this means buying dozens of SFH from people who don't want to move. This drives the price of any development up making it unprofitable in most cases. I'm sorry but I can't take you seriously.

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#128

Post by TimorousBestie »

mystraline wrote: post #106
mobilene wrote: post #35

We do the same here in Indianapolis and my read is that it's about cost containment. Our tax base here really doesn't fully support city services. And then more people move to the high-tax-base suburbs for better services, and the cycle repeats and gets worse.

To be fair, Indiana is now a Northern South state. MAGA governor, doing MAGA things to the state run universities, demolition of decency, acquiescence to federal power when it should fall to the state. And the AG is attacking doctors doing legitimate surgeries (abortion) with criminal harassing charges. Brain drain is also significant around West Lafayette, Marion county, and Bloomington due to anti-immigrant activit…

These are all factual things that Indiana state government has actually done over the past 10-15 years.

Not to mention the crippling higher education reforms and the state seizing control over tenure review.

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#129

Post by hn_acc1 »

GorbachevyChase wrote: post #115
scoofy wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in CA. My state senator is Scott Wiener. We are making some progress. Your argument might be plausible if it weren't for the fact that this issue is happening -- predictably -- in every major sprawling city in America. Strong Towns has literally built a tool to effectively convert cities' cash-accounting budgets into accrual-accounting budgets. You can see it happening over time... you just need to account for…

[flagged]

I think CA has bigger issues to tackle than repealing Prop 65 (IIRC, that's the one about carcinogen warnings). The other, may be happening in some places, but having lived here 20+ years in the Bay, I haven't seen even one example of either.

Re: Why isn't LA repaving streets?

#130

Post by outside1234 »

scoofy wrote: post #70

I have been a Strong Towns follower/member for about 6 years. I really don't think people realize the world of pain we're signing up for by not actually fixing the underlying problem of lack of density and walk-ability and their effect on the municipal budgets of American cities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Towns I know municipal finance is about as exciting socks for Christmas, but if the Strong Towns thesi…

A number of cities in Northern California are doing just this. We have at least 12 high density projects being built in Santa Cruz and we are a small city.
Post reply on HN